Oscars 2022: Dear Will Smith, your wife doesn't need you to protect her honour — especially through abuse

Samuel L Jackson was on stage at the Oscars, but it took Will Smith to drop the F-bomb.

During a ceremony that celebrated 60 years of James Bond, a Godfather (tribute with legends like Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, and Francis Ford Coppola), and a Pulp Fiction reunion (between John Travolta, Uma Thurman, and Jackson), it was Smith who provided the assault for the day.

In what seemed like the longest 10 minutes of confusion for the televised audience of the 94th Academy Awards, the truth finally emerged that the act of Smith getting up on stage and whacking segment host Chris Rock before cussing at him was, in fact, not a scripted event. 

Rock, who was on stage to present the best documentary category, made a few jokes about some of the nominees in the acting categories. Using his Will Smith joke, Rock pivoted to crack a tasteless jibe at Jada Pinkett-Smith’s shaven head, alluding it to that of GI Jane. While the actor chuckled weirdly at the joke at first, his wife did not share the amusement. 

What followed was the most bizarre piece of emotion on an Oscar stage but an everyday occurrence for so many women with partners who struggle to keep their sh*t together. 

Smith walked to the stage, slapped Rock, and came back to his seat while a shocked audience gaped, and Rock ambled to gain composure before moving on. Then Smith shouts from the audience, “Keep my wife’s name out of your f*cking mouth”.

Rock managed the awkwardness of the moment gingerly before moving on to the winner of the category, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s Summer of Soul. It is so resoundingly ironic that a documentary about the musically rich 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival that was overshadowed by the more mainstream Woodstock Festival in 1969, cannot escape being overshadowed even in its moment of glory thanks to the widely televised fracas between Rock and Smith.

It is unlikely that Rock was unaware of Pinkett-Smith’s alopecia condition that causes hair loss because the actress has previously spoken about coming to terms with it. She has also cleared the air that neither is she suffering from a life-threatening ailment that causes hair loss nor is she prepping for brain surgery. 

Rock’s history with Pinkett-Smith has been kind of prickly. Quick recap: In 2016, she said she would boycott the awards ceremony for lack of diversity; Rock then said on stage that she probably was not invited in the first place, and rued how Smith got paid $20 million for a movie; she hit out at him with a video about not needing to be invited before saying that such jokes come with the turf.

We can argue about how unwarranted or line-crossing Chris Rock’s joke was with reference to Pinkett-Smith’s bald head. There are so many people to make fun of as part of your stage routine, so why would Rock pick on her again? Either they are that close or there is an agenda. Unless there is some other unmentioned history between the Smiths and Rock, this is pretty much what has transpired so far. 

Was it insensitive to make fun of someone’s looks on stage? Maybe. Did it warrant a whack? Absolutely not.

What followed was perhaps the most nauseating, infuriating, and masquerading as an emotionally-charged speech that so many of us women have had to be subjected to in the guide of upholding family honour and “protecting the people we love”. 

You hit a man, Will. It is still an assault. There is ZERO justification for that. Provocation yes, but no justification. And to gloss over it like it is the kind of crazy thing people do when they are in love is a huge insult to a lot of people who love just as intensely but have better sense than to let their parochial egos get the better of it. It is regressive and unfair to many more men who do not resort to physical assault. 

Jada Pinkett-Smith did not like the joke. Fair enough. She did not laugh and let her displeasure known. She did not need her husband to settle the score. She is an actress in her own right, part of an unconventional marriage and power couple in Hollywood that has never shied away from speaking of matters that affect them both. 

She has a sizeable platform to air the grievance without needing to turn to her husband to “protect her” in front of the whole world. Through her online discussion series with her mother and daughter, Pinkett-Smith has the perfect opportunity to address rampant ableism and the hurtful nature of looks-based jokes. She, more than any other actress, has tackled issues head-on, and won many fans for the candid nature of her talk show.

The awards ceremony has always been politically charged through speeches and off-stage action. In a year when Russia-Ukraine are at war, a movie about a hearing disabled family wins our hearts and deservedly bags top honour, and the winner of the Best Actress award uses the platform to speak about lockdown anxiety-fuelled suicides and LGBTQ+ communities, a debatably poor joke on alopecia by a stand-up comedian triggered a slap? Am I the only one wondering if we are really losing perspective of the times that we are in?

If Smith’s behaviour early on was an overreaction to an unnecessary joke, then his sanctimonious thank you speech for winning the Best Actor award was a sweeping insult in the garb of an apology. By repeatedly harping about the role of being a fierce defender, Smith has reiterated the same justification so many men give for their boorish behaviour both in public and private with hopes of getting away with it by throwing in words like “love” and "honour."

Oh do shut up, Bono. That is not love. That is chauvinistic condescension that we have all come to normalise in this patriarchal world we live in. How many times before have we all justified physical response by saying “He did it because he loves me”?   

Will Smith’s actions overshadowed his own first Oscar win, robbed Summer of Soul of its right to celebrate, and undermined his wife’s choice to give a fitting response to Rock at a time, place, and manner of her bidding. Smith’s performance was a formidable one in King Richard but in these unforgiving times of life on the internet, he will forever be a meme. A joke.

I want to petition the Academy to bring Ricky Gervais to host the next ceremony. 

Senior journalist Lakshmi Govindrajan Javeri has spent a good part of two decades chronicling the arts, culture and lifestyles.

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by Lakshmi Govindrajan Javeri