The 2023 Oscars nominations generated a lot of online enthusiasm and predictions for the possible winners. However, when it came to presenting the awards, the Academy was in a conundrum because of what happened last year. The 2022 Oscar winners were overshadowed by the Will Smith and Chris Rock incident. As a result, the former was banned from the prestigious awards show for a decade. So who was going to present the award for Best Actor this year? The Academy came up with a solution that humiliated Smith even more.
Jessica Chastain And Halle Berry Save The Day
The Oscars have a unique tradition. Every year, the acting winner from the previous year returns to give the award to the current year’s winner. It’s possibly meant to symbolize a passing-of-the-baton moment. In 2022, Will Smith slapped Chris Rock and then later in the evening, collected his Best Actor award for King Richard. Since he was then banned from the Oscars for 10 years, this meant that the Academy had to improvise for this year’s Best Actor presenters.
Read More: 5 Actors Who Hated Will Smith’s Oscars Slap and 5 Who Hated Chris Rock’s Joke on Jada Pinkett Smith
So they called in Jessica Chastain, the winner of the 2022 Best Actress category for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and Halle Berry, the winner of the 2002 Best Actress award for Monster’s Ball. The two of them presented the awards for the 2023 Best Actor and Best Actress categories. Brendan Fraser and Michelle Yeoh won for The Whale and Everything Everywhere All At Once respectively. Yeoh is the second person of color to win the Best Actress award after Berry. So it was a symbolic passing of the torch moment between the two legendary actresses.
Will Smith And Chris Rock Incident Overshadows The 2023 Oscars
In a recent interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Jimmy Kimmel, the host of this year’s Academy Awards ceremony, said that he was going to refer to the infamous Will Smith and Chris Rock incident throughout his time on stage. He said:
“Whatever I say about it, it’s going to have to be great, right? Because so much has been said and there’s so much focus on it. I obviously don’t want to make the whole monologue about that, but it would be ridiculous not to mention it.”
Although he didn’t take any sides or any names, during his monologue, Kimmel joked that “five Irish actors are nominated tonight. The odds of another fight on stage just went way up.” Another time he said, “If anyone commits an act of violence during the show, you will be given the Oscar for best actor and be permitted to give a 19-minute speech.”
That’s not all. When he was introducing the presenters of the Best Documentary Feature category, he joked that this year’s presentation should conclude “without a hitch.” Last year, Chris Rock was presenting the winner in this category when he made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith and got slapped by Smith. Also, the “without a hitch” phrase is a reference to Will Smith’s 2005 film Without Hitch.
