Jay Leno opens up about Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars. (PhotoShannon Finney/Getty Images)
Jay Leno was in the audience at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles for the Oscars last month when Will Smith, unhappy with a joke Chris Rock had just made about Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith, came on stage and punched him. Though that moment was shocking for everyone there — and the millions who watched — it happened afterwards, when Smith twice yelled at Rock, “Keep my wife’s name out of your friggin’ mouth,” which stuck with him.
“For me, the most disturbing thing wasn’t the slap, because after the slap he kind of grinned [Rock]’ the former Tonight Show host told the Palm Beach Daily News ahead of a performance in West Palm Beach, Florida. “It was the shouting of obscenities. Then you say, ‘Whoa. What’s going on here?’ That’s real anger.”
Smith, whom Leno considers a “good guy,” stayed at the venue and won the best actor award for his role in King Richard. During his acceptance speech, he spoke about his family’s defense – the joke mocking his wife’s alopecia – and apologized to the academy and the rest of the audience. Rock declined to press charges, so Smith was not arrested. A day later, Smith issued a public apology to Rock, and event officials said they planned to investigate.
The latter seemed unnecessary to Leno as the slap was done in front of the cameras.
“What are you examining?” Leno said. “It must have been the most recorded attack in history. I saw the back of his shoe, I saw Chris’ ear. There were so many cameras on this incident. What are you investigating? I know that sometimes things are exactly as they seem.”
Many other people were in the room, including co-host Wanda Sykes, who called the violence “disgusting,” while co-host Amy Schumer called the incident “traumatizing.”
Within a week of the slap, Smith resigned from the academy. His board of directors, which includes film veterans Whoopi Goldberg, Steven Spielberg, Ava DuVernay and Laura Dern, announced on April 8 that they had voted to ban him from Academy events for 10 years. They didn’t take his Oscar back from him.