I don’t watch award shows but I saw the clips.
In my opinion the real man was Chris Rock, who deescalated the situation.
The biggest nonsense were statements to the effect that the slap was okay because a man should defend a woman. If it is okay for a man to slap another man for making a joke about his wife, why wouldn’t he also slap his wife because she said something he didn’t like?
If we normalize a man slapping another man on a stage, will Senators and Congressfolk get in on this and slap each other when they don’t like what is being said on the podium?
Will people decide that it’s okay to jump onto comedy stages across the country to slap comedians who make a joke that hurts their feelings?
I think Smith should have been escorted from the building and the award given to another person.
What was your reaction to the Slap?
Dear Ottmar,
I so appreciate your sentiments regarding the Will Smith slap of Chris Rock after Rock made fun of Smith’s wife’s appearance due to her illness. I did not see the Oscar show nor any excerpts, but I have read accounts of the event.
Here we are again facing the challenge of separating the outstanding work of an artist from his offensive behavior. Assault charges should be brought against Smith, but I don’t agree that he should be deprived of the Best Actor Oscar he won for his good work. I have enjoyed many of his films, and his ideas on an interview I saw on CBS Sunday Morning recently. I have not heard criticisms of Chris Rock for his irrelevant verbal “slap” offending Mrs. Smith. That also should seem horrendous to us though Rock has every right to say whatever he wishes.
I just watched MIRACLE OF THE WHITE STALLIONS (1963 Disney film) about the evacuation of the Lipizzaner horses from the Spanish Riding School in Vienna during World War II, thanks to the Riding School Director, Alois Podhajsky, and General Patton. I mention this because – well, because I just loved seeing those marvelous horses and riders, and I wanted to focus on something wonderful in the midst of all our stress. I attended a dress rehearsal of the Lipizzaner performance during my visit to Vienna some years ago.
I think you are right in that he should have received his prize but perhaps he should have received it in the mail rather than be celebrated in person. Ah, easy to be an “armchair quarterback”… but now it’s obvious that organizations, like the Academy, have to create contingency plans for future freak outs.
Who knows what was going on in his mind at the time. His mood changed in an instant. He is most likely full of regrets now.
“will Senators and Congressfolk get in on this “,..well, Hillary Clinton may have wanted to slap Trump for his offensive behavior. She is about 100 times smarter than him, and 1000 times more mature. Pray he will never get another chance.
Public life is a fish bowl !
.
I had the weirdest dream about him last night. Will Smith –
My 20 year old daughter told me all kinds of strange stuff about their marriage.
It’s like WTF. is he for real?…has a book out – WILL-
and his wife ….i am lost for words – the things she has said about him and done.
now – what is media gonna say about all his?,…the academy. their PR people? Will and his wife have a ton of PR experience.
That little stunt does not add up – imo
if it was real – suspect it was a form of projection… slap was for someone else. (ie your parent is giving you a hard time…you turn around and take it out on sibling ….power flows down)
The public stage is not a place for marital problems,..surely “actors” know this better than anybody!.
I have to agree with your impressions including taking the Oscar away but then since I don’t know much about that part of the situation I went into “don’t know mind” and let it go. It was then that it came to me that even if he did receive the Oscar, every time he looks at it, he will be reminded of what he did and I don’t think that would be such a nice feeling to have to deal with in association with receiving such a prestigious award an actor can be honored with.
I saw in an interview with one of the producers of the Oscars that the police showed up to arrest Smith for assault but Rock did not want him arrested, charged with anything or make a complaint, he refused to seek retribution. Not only that but he was performing the last few nights at a club and there were people in the audience shouting out nasty things about Smith and he refused to put him down. Very classy on his part.
The Academy is considering suspending, revoking or removing Smith from membership.
Just read how another comedian, Marc Maron, put it in perspective when he said: “The most profound display of self-sabotage I’ve ever seen.”
No one should purposefully harm another living being, period. IMO.
Dear HumanKind,
Is it Ever OK to hit or hurt another one out of pure emotional triggering?
Doesn’t every “healthy” person get triggered at times emotionally into their dysfunction…whatever it is?
Doesn’t every single person alive have trauma of some kind–even if that is “only” their birth… Is it even possible to Be alive without old trauma and “dysfunctional” patterns of some kind, to some degree? Granted, I do personally believe that all of us on this beautiful planet ARE NOW UPGRADING Healing and Transforming these very old dysfunctional limits INTO LOVING SYNERGY, SOMETHING THAT WORKS BETTER TO FEEL BETTER FOR MAJORITY ON THE PLANET.
And no matter who you are, a famous king or a beggar, a child, a woman or a man, no matter what you have, a trillion or penniless, and no matter what you do, WHO can say that anyone on this beautiful planet is more Important, more Valued, than anyone else? Truly!?
Originally, were not “royalty” (meaning regular breathing, mortal humans like everyone else) originally self-appointed by force (way back in the beginning of the concept)?
Where and Why did that begin, anyway? And who started it?
I ask because I also didn’t watch the show. But heard about and saw clips of this event…
I don’t know the “humanness” of these people involved, it doesn’t feel honest to judge someone else’s reasons or pain…….yet it seems there are many issues at play here in this (hit) slap.
That said, Mr. Smith, as talented, famous, and monetarily wealthy of a person as he is, even with all “protective” of intentions, rational or not, physically hurt another person that “hurt” him, or in this case hurt someone he loves deeply. If that had been anyone else, they instantly would have been escorted out by force.
Perhaps an honorable solution could have been that Mr. Smith left the building on his own after he hit Mr. Rock, to calm himself down. Mrs. Smith could have accepted Mr. Smith’s award in his absence, and perhaps addressed Her feelings honestly about being the cruel brunt of Mr. Rock’s joke.
I feel like Jane, that his art, his work stand separate from his action in that moment, and he still should receive the award.
But to allow him to essentially act-out his personal triggering-wounding by hurting, hitting another person, and then being allowed to remain in his seat and yell obscenities after doing so, then after all that, giving him a worldwide platform and extra time on.stage to defend his actions(I was told once that any “defense” is always an “attack”),
seem very unhealthy.
In my utopian world, I was hoping that Mr. Smith (whom I appreciate as an actor) would at least have Apologized to Mr. Rock in that moment accepting his award on stage…and taken accountability verbally right then in front of the whole world watching…the same world that saw him hit the man.
Since he was allowed to remain,
I was hoping that at least he would have used that precious extra time on stage, in front of the whole world, to CHANGE SOMETHING, to diminish collective shame,
and make the whole thing More than just about ego, award, old wounds. I believe Mr. Smith had an opportunity to literally shift the planet a bit in a Healthier Direction if he had just been brave enough to own his deeper vulnerability in that moment, on stage, with that award in his hand, and Verbally Apologize to Mr. Rock……as a man, as a man of color, as a human with wounds, as a father, as a son, as a brother, as a husband, as a nephew, cousin, friend…..
I felt disappointed that Mr. Smith wasn’t More Conscious in that moment to Not make it about himself…and to Not Rise Beyond and Bigger to help heal a bigger picture FOR EVERYONE ON THE PLANET. His tears could have looked into Chris Rock’s eyes sincerely, apologizing, from one wounded man to another. He could have hugged him…..there could have been many supportive, uplifting endings that could have Shown the World: MEN, THIS IS HOW YOU MAKE A HUGE EGO MISTAKE AND TURN IT AROUND…..AND SEE I DIDNT DIE FROM BEING VULNERABLE! IN FACT, I FREED MYSELF! My action was wrong, and created more shame & disempowerment for everyone. AND I NOW CHOOSE TO CHANGE THAT OLD DYSFUNCTIONAL ENERGY IN THIS MOMENT……….Which HELPS HEAL , EXPAND AND CREATE BY TURNING GARBAGE INTO BEAUTIFUL FLOWER…
…perhaps this could have helped SUPPORT MEN HEAL OLD EMOTIONAL WOUNDS all over the planet, politicians included, to shift, RISE AND BE TRULY COURAGEOUS TO TAKE DIFFERENT ACTIONS BY Seeing a famous wealthy MAN LISTENING TO AND FOLLOWING HIS HEART, IN THE MOMENT TO EMPOWER SOMETHING, INCLUDING HIMSELF,
INSTEAD OF STEALING IT AND DEFENDING HIMSELF FROM THE SHAME OF HIS HEART.S KNOWING.❤