The Oscars has never been the same since the infamous on-stage encounter between Will Smith and Chris Rock. The scandalous slap not only shocked the entire live audience and viewers watching at home but also robbed the rest of the winners of their own glorious moments on stage.
While the show must go on, as they say, everyone was left in a state of disbelief trying to process what has just occurred. In consequence, the people who went up the stage after the slap did not get to savor their wins.
Joseph Patel Called Will Smith “Selfish” For Robbing Him Of His Victory Moment
Summer of Soul producer Joseph Patel was one of the winners during the 94th Academy Awards who felt that he was robbed of the opportunity to relish his winning moment on stage. He wrote in a now-deleted Twitter post via THR:
“I think what Will did was selfish. It robbed the category of its moment. It robbed the other excellent and amazing films of their moment to be acknowledged in what was a STRONG year for docs. And it robbed Summer of Soul and our team of our moment. Of a loud, enthusiastic cheer for a celebrated film.”
Patel went up the stage with co-producers Robert Fyvolent and David Dinerstein and director Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson to accept the Best Documentary Feature for Summer of Soul. But as he mentioned, they were not able to completely celebrate the victory.
“Once we realized the Chris Rock/Will Smith interaction wasn’t a bit, everything got turned upside down. Everyone was still trying to make sense of it when Chris persevered and started to read the nominees. We were in shock walking to the stage—not because of winning but because we, too, were still trying to make sense of what happened.”
The producer added that he won’t probably watch the Oscars again because of the fiasco, further stating, “What both Will AND Chris did really stained what should have been a beautiful moment for us.”
Later that evening, Will Smith accepted his Best Actor award for King Richard with a tearful speech. All of these happened after he smacked Chris Rock for making a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith.
How Did The Slap Affect The Oscar Awards?
Public relations expert Lynn Carratt from Press Box PR shared via Mirror the implications and long-term effects of the infamous slap. While many thought it was scripted since the televised event has had plummeting viewership over the years, it turned out to be a candid situation.
“The Academy set up a crisis team to deal with any unexpected developments at future ceremonies, showing that the slap did indeed have a lasting impact. Two years later, and we’re still talking about it.”
The incident was a hard lesson for Hollywood’s crisis management team, but as Carratt mentioned, the disaster also created a lot of buzz on social media which made everyone pay attention to it.
After Smith was banned from attending the Academy Awards for ten years, it’s unlikely a similar event will happen at this year’s ceremony.
