Update: This news has been updated to include the Best Actor award at the Oscars.
Actors Will Smith and Chris Rock got into an altercation during Sunday’s Oscars live on TV. Minutes later, Smith won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in the movie King Richard.
Smith apparently hit stone in the face after the comedian made a joke about Smith’s wife.
Here’s the moment Chris Rock made a GI Jane 2 joke about Jada Pinkett Smith, prompting Will Smith to hit him and yell, “Keep my wife’s name out of your friggin’ mouth.” #Oscar pic.twitter.com/kHTZXI6kuL
— Variety (@variety) March 28, 2022
Smith got up from his seat in front of the stage, walked up to Rock and punched him. The TV show on ABC immediately removed the audio.
The joke about Jada Pinckett-Smith was for her performance in the movie GI Jane and for not having hair. She has previously spoken out about suffering from alopecia, a condition of hair loss.
According to videos on Twitter, after slapping Rock, Smith said, “KEEP MY WIFE’S NAME OUT OF YOUR MOUTH.”
Accepting the best actor award, Smith said, “Love makes us do crazy things.”
During his speech, Smith, who played tennis players Venus and Serena Williams’ father Richard Williams on King Richard, said Williams had always been protective of his family.
“Right now I feel overwhelmed by what God has called me to do: to protect and defend my family.”
Smith also apologized to the Academy and the other nominated actors, but not to Chris Rock.
After the event, a surprised Chris Rock attempted to proceed with the best documentary award ceremony, but was visibly upset.
Variety confirmed that Smith’s publicist, Meredith O’Sullivan, reached out to the actor to speak to him after the incident.