Will Smith did nothing wrong and rushed onto the stage to punch Chris Rock in the face. When he returned to his place, he said, “Don’t take my wife’s name in your damn mouth again!”. Turns out it wasn’t a rehearsal job. Film journalist Levin Van Giles explains: “This is a live broadcast for millions of people, there are fewer and fewer viewers, but there are still many of them.” “Will Smith would surely never do this scenario in that. It could only have happened on a whim and then he fell out of his role. In the US apparently they’ve already cropped the pictures.”
During his thank-you speech, Smith himself implicitly explained what he had done before. He said he wanted to protect the people he loved. The actor won his first Oscar for his role as Richard Williams, father and coach of tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams. “He also wanted to protect his family,” Smith said.
“Art imitates life. I look like a crazy dad, but love makes you do crazy things.” The actor apologized to the Academy Awards and his fellow nominees. “You feel very emotionally involved with the character of Richard Williams,” says Levine van Gils. “He also wants to protect his family and it is clear that he is doing so in this context from his claws†
“This is a beautiful moment,” said Will Smith. This was Smith’s third nomination for the Best Actor Oscar. This time he was finally allowed to receive it.
