What Will Smith did on the Oscars this Sunday is inexcusable – simply put AN ACT OF VIOLANCE – and should end his business in Hollywood.
The fact that Will Smith got out of his seat, hit a man, went back to his seat, openly screamed at Chris Rock (TWICE), sat for the balance of the presentation and through commercial breaks (was not escorted out of the building by the Academy), was given an Oscar, stood for his speech (at which he gave a bullshit excuse as to why he committed a violent act), continued doing press events for his win, then went to celebrate at the post Oscar parties for the remainder of the evening (as has been reported at the Vanity Fair party) is a demonstration of a man who’s a sociopath at best and a psychopath at worst and will stop at nothing to get what he wants.
And the Academy’s reaction and everybody else’s explanation of why Will Smith was justified and that he should be forgiven is patent bullshit.
What he did is grounds for ending our relationship with a criminal! I’m saying to all my producer and executive friends in Hollywood – do not employ Will Smith anymore. He should be taken off every project in development and he should be removed from our industry for the rest of time. His participation in the business should be over.
If we’re going to take Scott Rudin, John Lasseter and a variety of other people out of their careers and send them to the woodshed for bad acts, why are we not doing the same to a man who committed, on national (NO worldwide) television an ACT OF CRIMINAL VIOLENCE?
The savagery that he demonstrated, and the truly unhinged screaming at Chris Rock about a joke (that was actually not very funny and fell flat) is reason enough that he should be dressed down for his behavior. Will Smith has demonstrated that he is an angry little boy who behaved like a petulant teenager. And for that he should lose the right to transact business in our industry!
The Academy’s reaction and the industry’s excuses for his behavior is essentially normalizing violence on the world stage and allowing it to continue. Allowing it to persist, is the wrong message and the wrong avenue our business should be taking. If we are going to take a stand (the right stand I will add) for LGBTQ and Me Too rights, then why is violence by a rich, entitled and powerful predator allowed to stand?
Everybody in the room, including the producers of the telecast who were prattling on throughout the entire show, about repugnant demonstrations of violence in Ukraine and toward women (you pick the violent act), who then got up for a standing ovation (for a man that just committed a criminal violent act) is the height of hypocrisy.
I’m willing to give some grace to the people in the room. They probably didn’t really understand or have time to process what had just happened and maybe in the moment they just smile, look pretty, stay rich and keep their hand out of the meat grinder. But now that we’re two days on, those people need to speak and they need to speak loudly and consistently. Will Smith is a predator, bar none, full stop, end of sentence! And for that he should be removed from our business.
What seems to be happening, however, is Will Smith gives a bullshit apology to Chris Rock and apologizes to the academy for his bad behavior. Now they batten down the hatches, stay quiet and hope the whole thing fucking blows over. BULLSHIT – that’s not enough!
He should be removed from our business and should have his career ended for what he did. The fact that he didn’t get arrested is a gift from Chris Rock and Will Smith should be kissing his fucking ass. Chris Rock was the man in that situation. He didn’t go after Will Smith, he didn’t throw a punch back, he de-escalated the situation, and by some accounts tried to apologize to the man and his wife minutes after it happened.
That is the demonstration of a MAN! Not the unhinged cowardice that Will Smith demonstrated.
