After comforting Will Smith after Smith beat Chris Rock at the Oscars, Denzel Washington has now spoken publicly about what happened at last Sunday’s awards show.
Washington was attending author and Bishop TD Jakes’ leadership summit Saturday morning to discuss his career and faith when Jakes asked him what happened between Smith and Rock at the Oscars.
“Well, there’s a saying, ‘When the devil ignores you, you know you’re doing something wrong.’ The devil says, ‘Oh no, leave him alone, he’s my darling.’ Conversely, if the devil is attacking you, maybe it’s because he’s trying to do something right. And for whatever reason, the devil caught that fact that night,” Washington told Jakes onstage.
Washington spoke to Smith, along with Tyler Perry and Smith’s publicist, during commercial breaks at the Oscars after Smith slapped Rock for making a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith. During his best actor acceptance speech, Smith thanked Washington, saying Washington told him, “Be careful in your highest moment, then the devil will come for you.”
“Fortunately there were people there. Not only me, but others, Tyler Perry, came to me immediately. [Said] some prayers. I won’t say what we talked about, but unless, for God’s sake, each of us goes. Who should we judge? I don’t know all the details of the situation, but I do know that the only solution, as I see it, was prayer,” Washington said Saturday.
Smith’s public spat over the slap has become the biggest crisis of his career. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences opened an investigation into the attack this week, and on Friday Smith resigned from the Academy’s membership.
“The list of those I have hurt is long and includes Chris, his family, many of my dear friends and loved ones, everyone present and the global audience back home,” Smith said in a statement Friday. “I betrayed the academy’s trust. I deprived other nominees and winners of the opportunity to celebrate and be celebrated for their extraordinary work. My heart is broken.”
At his first stand-up show since the slap, Rock opened up about the Boston incident, saying he’s still “processing what happened” and will talk about it in depth at a later date.
“I don’t have a lot on my mind about what happened, so if you guys came to hear that, I have a whole show that I wrote ahead of this weekend,” Rock said at Wednesday night’s show. “I’m still processing what happened. So someday I’m gonna talk about this shit. And it’s going to be serious and fun.”
Correction: Washington’s quotes have been updated for clarity.
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