Did Will Smith refuse to leave? Questions swirl around that infamous Oscars slap

Days after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock on the Oscars, the movement image academy nonetheless was reeling from the blow as leaders confronted rising scrutiny over their dealing with of the altercation that derailed the Sunday ceremony and shocked viewers at dwelling.

Questions continued to swirl even after the academy’s announcement Wednesday that it had began disciplinary proceedings in opposition to Smith. Competing narratives of what occurred contained in the Dolby Theatre within the fraught moments after the incident — and why Smith was allowed to remain and settle for his lead actor Oscar for “King Richard” — shifted focus from the lads onstage to the leaders behind the scenes who had been calling the pictures on Hollywood’s greatest evening.

The academy, which has confronted fierce criticism over the incident, together with from its personal members, has positioned a number of the accountability on Smith, suggesting the actor had refused a request to depart the Dolby Theatre after hanging Rock.

“Whereas we wish to make clear that Mr. Smith was requested to depart the ceremony and refused, we additionally acknowledge we might have dealt with the state of affairs otherwise,” the group stated in a press release Wednesday, calling Smith’s conduct “a deeply stunning, traumatic occasion to witness in-person and on tv.”

However reviews Thursday by TMZ, Selection and the Hollywood Reporter, citing nameless sources accustomed to what transpired, forged doubt on the academy’s account. They steered that the group’s leaders and the present’s first-time producer, Will Packer, conveyed blended, and maybe even contradictory, messages about whether or not Smith ought to be eliminated and moreover steered that they by no means formally requested him to depart.

Neither the academy nor Smith’s consultant has responded to questions from The Occasions about exactly what transpired that night. Packer additionally didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Through e-mail on Wednesday, one academy governor, who declined to talk on the report due to the sensitivity of the state of affairs, chalked up the confusion to what the governor referred to as “the fog of conflict.”

After the incident, Smith was seen conferring along with his publicist and being comforted by Denzel Washington, Tyler Perry and Bradley Cooper, amongst different well-wishers. In the meantime, heated discussions went on behind the scenes involving Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences President David Rubin, Chief Government Daybreak Hudson, Packer and Smith’s representatives over the way to deal with the state of affairs.

Lower than an hour after hanging Rock, Smith obtained a standing ovation and cheers from many within the Dolby when he was awarded the lead actor prize for his efficiency as the daddy of tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams in “King Richard.” In a tearful, practically six-minute acceptance speech, the actor steered that, like his character within the movie, he had been pushed by the impulse to guard his household and provided an apology to the academy and his fellow nominees, however to not Rock.

In a preview of an interview with “Good Morning America” slated to air Friday, Packer revealed that Los Angeles Cops had been ready to arrest Smith following the altercation, however Rock declined to press fees. “They stated … ‘We’re ready to get him proper now. You may press fees. We are able to arrest him,’” Packer stated. “They had been laying out the choices, and as they had been speaking, Chris was being very dismissive of these choices. He was like, ‘No, I’m positive.’ He was like, ‘No, no, no.’”

Since Sunday, dialog in Hollywood has been largely dominated by the stunning eruption of violence onstage, plunging the academy into an unprecedented disaster because it finds itself in an more and more unstable dispute with one of many trade’s most bankable and well-liked stars.

Earlier than an emergency assembly of its board of governors Wednesday, academy leaders Rubin and Hudson spoke with Smith by Zoom, based on a Selection report Thursday that cited unnamed sources. The academy went on to say that it had initiated disciplinary proceedings in opposition to Smith “for violations of the Academy’s Requirements of Conduct, together with inappropriate bodily contact, abusive or threatening habits and compromising the integrity of the Academy.”

The academy stated the last word repercussions for Smith — “which can embrace suspension, expulsion or different sanctions permitted by the Bylaws and Requirements of Conduct” — can be voted on by the group’s 54-member board, which incorporates such notables as Steven Spielberg, Ava DuVernay and Laura Dern, at a gathering on April 18. Smith was provided 15 days to offer a written response.

In the meantime, two of the present’s co-hosts, comedians Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes, provided their reactions to the incident.

In an Instagram submit Wednesday, Schumer wrote: “Nonetheless triggered and traumatized. I like my good friend @chrisrock and imagine he dealt with it like a professional. … the entire thing was so disturbing.”

On Ellen DeGeneres’ daytime discuss present Wednesday, Sykes stated she “felt so terrible for my good friend Chris, and it was sickening. I bodily felt sick, and I’m nonetheless a bit traumatized by it.”

Sykes additionally criticized the choice to permit Smith to stay within the Dolby to obtain his Oscar after slapping Rock.

“For them to let him keep in that room and luxuriate in the remainder of the present and settle for his award, I used to be like, ‘How gross is that this? That is simply the incorrect message,’” she stated. “You assault any individual, you get escorted out the constructing and that’s it. For them to let him proceed, I believed it was gross. Plus, I wished to have the ability to run out after he received and say, ‘Sadly, Will couldn’t be right here tonight …’”

Rock himself made his first public feedback in regards to the incident at a stand-up present in Boston on Wednesday night. “I’m nonetheless type of processing what occurred,” he advised the gang, who greeted him with a standing ovation. “Sooner or later, I’ll discuss that s—. And will probably be critical and humorous.”

Additional controversy emerged when one of many producers of “Summer season of Soul” — which Rock named the Oscar winner for documentary function moments after being slapped — posted a now-deleted Twitter thread excoriating Smith for violence that forged a pall over the evening and Rock for making disrespectful feedback.

Joseph Patel, who’s of South Asian descent, stated he didn’t notice till after the present that Rock had introduced the winners of his class as director Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson and “4 white guys.”

“What each Will AND Chris did actually stained what ought to have been an attractive second for us,” Patel tweeted. He added: “The explanation that makes me so so very indignant is as a result of I used to be so proud to be one among a handful of South Asians to have ever received an Oscar within the historical past of the award,” Patel stated.

Neither Patel nor Rock responded to requests for remark.

It stays to be seen what disciplinary motion the academy will take in opposition to Smith. On Monday, Whoopi Goldberg, an academy governor, stated categorically on the daytime discuss present “The View”: “We’re not going to take that Oscar from him.”

However the determination on what measures to take will in the end be as much as the whole board. Since adopting a code of conduct for its members in 2017, the academy has ejected solely three members: producer Harvey Weinstein, director Roman Polanski and comedian-author Invoice Cosby.

Some have speculated that Smith’s membership might as an alternative be suspended for a sure time frame or that the actor — who has a movie popping out later this yr from Apple referred to as “Emancipation” — could possibly be barred from presenting at subsequent yr’s Oscars. (It’s customary for the earlier yr’s lead actor winner to current the lead actress trophy, as Anthony Hopkins did to Jessica Chastain this yr.)

Insiders say it might take three weeks for a closing decision to be reached, because the group plans to rigorously observe the procedures specified by its bylaws and requirements of conduct. (In 2019, Polanski filed a lawsuit in opposition to the academy, alleging that it had not adopted its personal protocols in expelling him, however in the end he misplaced the go well with.)

In a press release issued Monday, Smith referred to as his conduct “unacceptable and inexcusable,” apologizing to Rock and saying, “I used to be out of line and I used to be incorrect. I’m embarrassed and my actions weren’t indicative of the person I wish to be. There isn’t any place for violence in a world of affection and kindness.”

Talking on “The View” Thursday, Goldberg stated she believed that Smith had been requested to depart the Oscars, at the same time as she acknowledged that she wasn’t sure. “I wasn’t there — I can’t think about what was happening again there,” she stated. “However I do know that the one individual anyone ought to be specializing in, in my view, is Will.”

Occasions employees writers Glenn Whipp, Mark Olsen and Jen Yamato contributed to this report.