One thing Will Smith hasn’t done is cause much controversy over his 30+ year career…that is until the 2022 Oscars. Of all the times, of all the places, on a worldwide stage, Will decided to be that guy and slap comedian Chris Rock after a bald joke targeting Will’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. The world was shocked. Will was one of the last people on earth that people would expect to hit another entertainer followed by some NSFW language. Well, it happened and people are still talking.
Things took a serious turn when Will resigned from the board of the Academy, lost a couple of Netflix deals, and got slapped (pun intended) with a 10-year Oscar ban. Now, because of his overnight bad-guy status, a growing number of people want Will Smith to give back the Oscar he rightfully earned for his performance in King Richard. We, on the other hand, think Will Smith should keep it.
Here’s why.
All Hail King Will
The number one reason why Will Smith should keep his Oscar is that it was well deserved based on his performance in King Richard. After all, that’s why he was there in the first place, right? He was clearly a frontrunner for the Best Actor award and had already been awarded the Golden Globe for Best Actor and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance. It was only fitting that he won the ultimate Academy Award.
Just in case you need a few receipts for why Will was an Oscar winner in the first place, King Richard was an immediate hit with fans when it started streaming on HBO Max. According to Deadline, more than 700,000 viewers watched the movie over its premiere weekend. Even more impressive, the movie had a 100% completion rate with folks watching it from beginning to end without pause. Will had clearly captivated audiences.
Audiences weren’t the only ones who were impressed. Critics raved about Will’s performance with The Los Angeles Times describing it as “outstanding, wholly committed.” The Independent described Will as “a true movie star in an age where there are diminishingly few” and said he has “a certain sense of command, a largeness to his presence that reaches beyond the confines of the film itself.”
Those are the types of praises reserved for an Academy Award winner, don’t you agree?
And the Oscar goes to…a racist?!
If folks think Will disgraced the Academy Award, they need to take a little stroll down memory lane because the very first Best Actor winner was a whole Nazi. Yes, we’re serious.
According to The Independent, when the Academy got together to calculate the votes for the winner in 1929, the dog Rin-Tin-Tin took the top spot, but they didn’t want to be embarrassed by giving the award to an animal. So instead, they did the next best thing and decided that Emil Jannings — an actor who became a propagandist for the Nazi Party and Adolf Hitler — was a better choice.
The funny thing is there’s never been any talk about stripping away his Oscar despite his background and the films he performed in blackface.
Hmm…
Let’s not forget other controversial Oscar winners
Now, let’s take a look at two more cases where the winners are more controversial. Director Roman Polanski won Best Director in 2003, according to Complex. The problem was he had been a fugitive from the U.S. for numerous years after being charged with indecency against a 13-year-old girl back in the 1970s. And let’s not forget about good ol’ Harvey Weinstein who won an Oscar in 1999 for Best Picture as the director of Shakespeare in Love. He just so happens to be locked up for most likely the rest of his life after years of taking indecent liberties against dozens of women.
The Academy could sanitize Harvey’s statue and give it to someone else, but they haven’t and they won’t. In fact, it has never even been part of an open discussion.
While these men have done some horrible, atrocious things, there’s been NO talk of taking away their Oscars. It’s been acknowledged that yeah, they’ve committed some unforgivable, awful acts targeting underage girls and numerous women all over the place, but they should, by all means, keep their awards. Clearly, hundreds of accusations, being locked up and running from the law pales (pun intended) in comparison to an award.
However, Will has done only one thing and it took a dark (pun intended again) turn. What’s the common denominator? Emil, Roman, and Harvey all happen to be white men while Will is black. We hate to bring race into this, but America is gonna America at the end of the day.
Somehow Will’s character, reputation, career, and goodwill are all wiped away by one slap. The double standard that Will is facing proves that regardless of how much gain a black man makes, it can be taken away in one swoop due to one incident.
White men, on the other hand, can continue to have bad behavior for decade after decade and still not be vilified nearly as much.
This is looking more and more unfair, isn’t it?
Celebrities weigh in on Will Smith’s Oscar
Chris Rock’s younger brother, Kenny Rock told the Los Angeles Times that not only should Will be banned from future ceremonies, but he thinks Will shouldn’t be able to keep the award either.
Harry Lennix, an actor and a member of the Academy, wrote an op-ed for Variety, and said that Will’s 10-year ban isn’t enough and is just “an extended time out for a playground bully.” He said that only Will could “redeem the integrity of the Oscars” by express mailing the statue back and should publicly acknowledge that he isn’t “worthy” of being the recipient of the award.
Was Will’s misstep that huge? More importantly, is he a monster? Is he unredeemable? No, no, and no. One moment can’t define any man, including Will.
The Oscars backtrack
Why should Will Smith give back his Oscar when the Academy didn’t even think the incident was a big deal? One co-producer told Good Morning America (via Variety) that he didn’t even take it seriously at first and thought it was a joke. He said, “I thought it was part of something that Chris and Will were doing on their own. I thought it was a bit. I wasn’t concerned at all.”
He wasn’t the only one who wasn’t concerned. Will remained in his seat at the front of the theater after the incident went down. After the initial shock wore off, the fake outrage began and people began questioning why Will wasn’t immediately removed. To save face, the Academy has done plenty of backtracking.
A few days later, some back-and-forth started about how Will was asked to leave but didn’t, and then word came out that it was merely suggested he leave. At the Academy’s meeting on March 30, the group tried to make things a bit clearer. According to Deadline, the Academy officially said, “While we would like to clarify that Mr. Smith was asked to leave the ceremony and refused, we also recognize we could have handled the situation differently.”
However, Will’s people said, nah, hold up, fam, it didn’t happen that way. Will’s camp said it was only “gently” suggested that Will leave and was not demanded. Further, the top folks didn’t even tell Will directly, they relayed the message to his rep, and Will said he wanted to stay, apologized, and remained in his seat to be awarded for his work.
So if the Academy didn’t have a problem with him at the time that everything went down, why would they have a problem now?
At this point, it’s pretty clear that anyone who thinks Will Smith should give back the Oscar award is basing their decision on his private life and personal matters, not on his amazing performance.
Don’t you agree?
I agree. So one thing makes him bad and others have done many things to many people. He has received his punishment and people need to move on. So one mistake out of a long career makes him evil? The Oscar’s have let So many things go on over the years they need to be shut down anyways.
He earned The Oscar.