Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith arrive at the Vanity Fair Oscar party during the 94th Academy Awards in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., March 27, 2022. Picture: Reuters/Danny Moloshok
There was a moment right after Chris Rock made an ill-advised joke about Jada Pinkett-Smith’s hair loss, claiming that he was looking forward to seeing her in “G.I. Jane 2’, where Will Smith seemed to get lost in the moment.
With his wife, who was seated next to him, clearly unimpressed with Rock's joke, Smith laughed heartily along with the rest of the audience gathered at this year's 94th annual Academy Awards.
Then he seemed to suddenly come to the realisation that Rock was poking fun at his wife’s battle with alopecia, which is a disease that results in hair loss.
Rock’s joke makes reference to the ’90s blockbuster “GI Jane” in which Demi Moore rocked a heavy buzzcut in playing the title role.
Casually, Smith rose to his feet, walked up to a grinning Rock and slapped him across the face.
The moment was so shocking that it felt like it must've been a pre-rehearsed bit. But when Smith went back to his seat and proceeded to repeat the sentence, “keep my wife’s name out of your f**king mouth” it became clear that it was not.
Rock tried to make light of the situation, stating, "Wow, Will Smith just smacked the sh*t out of me," as Smith was walking back to take his seat.
Then the shock of the moment seemingly struck him a few moments later as he fumbled through a few words before saying, "That was the greatest night in the history of television."
While many have criticised Smith for tainting the awards with such a violent act, it's worth looking back at the past few years and how the continuous, mean-spirited jokes made at his and his family's expense may have pushed him over the edge.
In the aftermath of last night's incident, much has been made of how Rock and the Smith family's bad blood dates back to Rock's previous jabs at Pinkett-Smith at the 2016 Oscars.
Following Pinkett-Smith's boycotting of that awards ceremony in protest of its lack of diversity and inclusion Rock, who was that year's host, quipped, "Jada says she’s not coming, protesting. Jada boycoting the Oscars is like me boycoting Rihanna’s panties. I wasn’t invited."
Ouch.
In that same monologue, he went on to suggest that her decision not to attend was due to the fact that her husband hadn't been nominated for his role in Concussion, which was one of the biggest shocks that year.
“It’s also not fair that Will was paid $20 million for ’Wild Wild West’," Rock added.
Further to this, Smith has become one of the biggest social media memes over the past few years with users mercilessly trolling him and Pinkett-Smith's relationship after it was revealed that she was having an extramarital "physical relationship" with singer August Alsina.
The couple even sat down to discuss the affair on Pinkett-Smith’s Facebook Watch series, “Red Table Talk” in 2020 which only heightened public scrutiny of their relationship.
While all of this doesn't justify Smith striking a fellow esteemed colleague across the face on international television, it does explain Smith's raw and inflamed emotions.
Everyone has a breaking point, and love can make you act irrationally. Smith acknowledged this during his speech when collecting his Best Actor trophy for his role in King Richard a few minutes after the incident.
“I know to do what we do, you gotta be able to take abuse, have people talk crazy about you,” he said. “In this business you gotta be able to have people disrespecting you and you gotta smile and pretend like that’s okay.
"Art imitates life," he added. I look like the crazy father, just like they said about Richard Williams. But love will make you do crazy things."
While it is true that one shouldn't condone such behaviour, especially on such a big stage with millions of viewers watching across the globe, it is also true that we all have a breaking point.
Sometimes you can't just "smile and pretend like that it okay".
Given the emotionally charged couple of years Smith and his family have had to endure in the public eye, he was bound to reach his breaking point sooner rather than later.
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