From family-friendly rapper to sitcom star on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and later box-office giant, Smith has built his career on being personable both on and off screen.
It’s one of the reasons many initially dubbed him his wife’s “protector” when he slapped Rock after the comic and actor joked about Jada Pinkett Smith’s cropped hair on the Oscars stage.
“Jada I love you ‘GI Jane 2’ can’t wait to see it,” Rock said while presenting the award for Best Documentary.
Smith then took to the stage, hit rock, walked back to his seat and yelled at the comic, “Keep my wife’s name out of your frigging mouth!”
It’s unclear if Rock was aware that Pinkett Smith suffers from alopecia, a hair loss condition that can be caused by an autoimmune reaction.
Smith would be highly rated for his role in King Richard after his Best Actor win — which came shortly after the slap.
But that was overshadowed by Smith’s actions that night and could make studios reconsider working with the actor, or at least delay planned projects.
As Forbes’ Scott Mendelson pointed out, “The Oscars incident has shattered a carefully crafted 30-year image of approachable, harmless, and always-on, movie-star charisma.” Much seems to depend on the steps Smith takes into the future after he turns his back on publicly apologized to Rock and resigned from the Academy.
Rock hasn’t fully spoken out yet
Three days after the controversial incident, Rock entered a different phase.
He briefly addressed the slap during a comedy show for his “Ego Death Tour” at Boston’s Wilbur Theater.
“I don’t have a lot of sh*** about what happened. So if you came to hear that, I had a whole show that I wrote before this weekend,” Rock said. “And I’m still processing what happened, so I’ll talk about it at some point. And it’s going to be serious and it’s going to be funny, but now I’m going to tell some jokes.”
Many are waiting to hear Rock’s thoughts on not only being hit by Smith, but whether he was aware of Pinkett Smith’s health condition and the aftermath of what stands as one of the most shocking moments in Academy Awards history.
Others in Rock’s life were louder.
His younger brother, comedian Tony Rock, took to Twitter to answer a few questions including how his older brother is doing. “Quiet Rich.” tweeted Tony Rockwho also addressed his brother, who was slapped in one of his own standup performances that was shared on social media.
Academy sanctions
Days after the Oscars, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced that it had instituted “disciplinary proceedings” against Smith.
While the actor has already resigned from the academy, its president, David Rubin, said in a statement Friday that the group “will continue our disciplinary proceedings against Mr. Smith for violations of the academy’s standards of conduct before our next board meeting on April 18.” “
These actions may include permanent expulsion and anything else that falls within the scope of the Academy’s constitution and/or standards of conduct.
CNN’s Chloe Melas and Brian Stelter contributed to this report.