Fresh Prince on the Blacklist: Is Will Smith Career on Pause?

On the stage of the iconic awards show meant to highlight excellence in the film industry, March 27,2022 saw the Oscars turn into disarray from a joke made by comedian Chris Rock. Will Smith walked onstage and slapped Chris Rock across the face following Rock making a disturbing joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s alopecia, an autoimmune disorder.
According to Britannica, Hollywood actors are known for being blacklisted for being difficult to work with, having subversive ties, or even a public freakout. Will Smith however is a well-known actor with decades of experience, rapper, and film producer, and is on the verge of being blacklisted due to what critics are now regarding as the “slap heard around the world” .
Viewers questioned if the slap was scripted, being that the award show was live. People began to question Smith’s mental health, pointing to the clip that illustrated how after he slapped Rock, he sat down and loudly yelled profane words at him. Later Smith won Best Actor for King Richard then cried and apologized for his actions without actually apologizing to Rock.
“I want to apologize to The Academy; I want to apologize to all of my fellow nominees,” he said through tears. “I hope the Academy invites me back,” stated Award winner Will Smith.
“Sony and Netflix both hit pause on collaborating with Smith” stated the Daily Beast. Including the treasure “Bad Boys 4” at which Smith already received 40 pages of script before the Oscars, stated Hollywood Reporter. As well as the movie “Fast and Loose” about a criminal who lost his memory after an attack. And the Apple TV + movie “Emancipation” that Smith plays a runaway slave from Louisiana. Is currently on pause as well after the momentous incident.
“I feel like the slap shouldn’t affect him because this was not his first-time making comments to Jada and he was just sticking up for his wife. Jada has been very open about how the process has been affecting her and for him to make a joke is disrespectful. I don’t think they should cut roles because of the slap,” stated Ashley Jones a junior Mass Communications major from Baton Rouge, LA.
David Rubin, Oscars president for three years stated, “We will continue to move forward with our disciplinary proceedings against Mr. Smith for violations of the Academy’s Standards of Conduct.”
People perceived that Smith should not be invited back to the Academy Awards, arguing that if it was in a different setting, Smith would’ve been immediately asked to leave or even escorted out by the police. It’s important to note however that the storied actor and entertainer that he is, there aren’t many rooms that Will Smith could be kicked out of.
In an interview with Good Morning America, Will Packer, Oscar producer, stated about Rock that “He urged the Academy leadership not to physically remove him because Rock didn’t want to make a bad situation worse.”
Smith stated that he would accept any further consequences and would resign days later from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the academy accepted his resignation. Though Chris Rock did not press charges, the slap still making rounds in the media is leaving everyone wondering if Will Smith’s career would survive in the midst of this controversy.