The 65th Grammy Awards celebrates 50 years of hip-hop with one epic performance featuring several famous faces, but one was missing from the ensemble for a specific reason – Will Smith. According to Questlove, who spoke to Variety, Will Smith was meant to participate in the tribute but had to back out due to scheduling conflicts. But do you think it’s true, or he’s just using this excuse to cover up the truth that he (or the people around him) might be afraid of how he might behave again in this yet another awards ceremony? That’s what we’re going to find out and more in today’s video. But before I spill anything, make sure first that you subscribe to our channel and hit that notification bell for more updates and videos like this. Now, let’s jump in!
Will Smith’s relationship with awards shows has been a bit of a mixed bag as of late, thanks to the events that transpired at the 2022 Academy Awards. Smith’s Oscars slap controversy involved the actor’s heated and violent reaction to comedian Chris Rock’s joke at Jada Pinkett Smith’s expense. The slap and verbal barrage Smith unleashed at Rock severely undermined his best actor win for “King Richard” later that night, and the star has been dealing with the consequences ever since.
Will Smith has made his share of rap hits over the years, and indeed, was supposed to be part of the Grammy Awards’ tribute to 50 years of hip-hop (via Variety). However, as musician and producer Questlove noted, Smith’s absence was entirely work-related, and the actor was simply too busy with his Hollywood schedule to take part in the tribute. In fact, the event happened to coincide with filming the upcoming “Bad Boys 4.”
“I’ll give the spoiler alert away,” Questlove said. “Will Smith was a part of the festivities tonight, but they started shooting ‘Bad Boys 4’ this week. There were a lot of preliminary shots that he had to do, so we had to lose Will.”
Although it might be confirmed that Will Smith did not drop out due to his last Awards ceremony charade with Chris Rock, the actor still hit what some might say a rock bottom when this happened. As you remember, Will resigned from Academy after the incident. Let’s take a short trip down memory lane.
He said that he would “accept any further consequences the board deems appropriate.”
The academy said that it accepted his resignation.
Now that he had resigned, Mr. Smith will no longer have access to academy screenings and events. He would also not be able to vote in the Academy Awards. However, he could still be nominated for an award, since being a member is not a requirement for eligibility.
Mr. Smith’s resignation came roughly 12 hours after Will Packer, the lead producer of the Oscars telecast, spoke publicly about the episode for the first time.
Mr. Packer said he had learned from his co-producer, Shayla Cowan, that there were discussions of plans to “physically remove” Mr. Smith from the venue. So he said he immediately approached academy officials and told them that he believed Mr. Rock did not want to “make a bad situation worse.”
In the interview, Mr. Packer also said that Mr. Rock’s joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair was unscripted “free-styling.”
“He didn’t tell one of the planned jokes,” he said of Mr. Rock.
Mr. Packer said that, like many viewers at home, he had originally thought the slap might be part of an unplanned comedic bit, and that he was not entirely sure until he spoke with Mr. Rock backstage that Mr. Smith had actually hit the comedian.
“I just took a punch from Muhammad Ali,” Mr. Packer recalled Mr. Rock telling him.
“I’ve never felt so immediately devastated,” Mr. Packer said of the incident.
Smith did not apologize to Mr. Rock until the following evening, after the Academy had condemned his actions and initiated disciplinary proceedings against him. Mr. Packer’s comments came after days of questions about why Mr. Smith had seemed to face no repercussions for striking a presenter on live television.
The academy said in a statement in April that Mr. Smith had been asked to leave the awards ceremony following the slap, but had remained. Then several publications questioned that account, citing anonymous sources, and reported that Mr. Packer had suggested he stay.
Shortly after the ceremony ended Sunday, the Los Angeles Police Department issued a statement saying that the person who had been slapped had “declined to file a police report.”
At the time, Ms. Pinkett Smith was outspoken about what many people saw as an urgent need for the academy to become more inclusive. Mr. Smith joined her in a boycott of the ceremony, drawing attention to the #OscarsSoWhite movement.
Given the weight of the last ceremony chaos Will Smith had been into, do you really think him dropping out of the Oscars was just a result of conflict in schedule? Let us know your thoughts below and don’t forget to hit that like and subscribe button and smash that notification bell for more episodes.
