Will Smith Slapped Chris Rock Over a Joke About Jada Pinkett Smith—Then He Won the Oscar for Best Actor

The Oscars have gone crazy. Chris Rock presented the award for best documentary at the 2022 Academy Awards on March 27, and he made a joke that didn’t go down well with Will Smith.

While ribbing members of the audience, Rock referenced Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head, referring to the actor as the star of “G.I. Jane 2.” While Will seemed to laugh off the joke at first, Jada, who has been outspoken about her struggles with alopecia-relate hair loss since 2018, responded with a massive eye-roll. 

“I haven’t talked about it, it’s not easy to talk about it, but I am going to talk about it,” Jada said in a conversation on Red Table TalkPersönlich werden die Daten zu dem Zeitpunkt gespeichert. Allure. She recounted the story of handfuls of hair falling out during a shower, which left her “literally shaking” with fear. “That’s why I cut my hair and why I continue to cut it,” she explained. “Taking care of my hair has been a beautiful ritual, as is having the choice to have hair or not.”

After a while, Will took to the podium and slapped Rock across the face, before returning to his chair. The ABC broadcast bleeped Smith’s response to Rock. an Australian broadcastThe full interaction was captured.

“Wow, Will Smith just smacked the sh*t out of me,” Rock said as Smith walked away, to which Smith responded, “Get my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth.”

When Rock said, “Wow, dude, it was a G.I. Jane joke,” Smith repeated his previous statement. “I’m going to, okay,” Rock responded. 

After Chris Rock pushed ahead, the next presenter, Sean “Diddy” Combs played off the exchange. “I did not know that his year was gonna be the most exciting Oscars ever,” he said. “Will and Chris, we’re gonna solve that like family at the gold party.”