Academy president says initial response to Will Smith Oscars slap ‘was inadequate’

Janet Yang, the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), said on Monday that the organization’s initial response to the onstage altercation between actors Will Smith and Chris Rock at last year’s Oscars ceremony “was inadequate.” 

Speaking at a 2023 Oscars nominees luncheon event, Yang said that Smith’s striking of Rock was “fully unacceptable” and that the organization’s initial response in the aftermath fell short. 

AMPAS’s board of governors announced in April that it had banned Smith for 10 years from attending any Academy event as a result of the incident. 

Smith, 54, went onstage and slapped Rock after the comedian made a disparaging joke about his wife’s hair. Jada Pinkett Smith, the host of Facebook’s “Red Table Talk,” has been vocal about her struggles with alopecia, an autoimmune disease that causes hair loss. 

“I’m sure you all remember we experienced an unprecedented event at the Oscars,” Yang said at the luncheon, according to Variety. “What happened onstage was fully unacceptable and the response from our organization was inadequate.”

Yang added that AMPAS learned from this incident and “must be fully transparent and accountable in our actions, and particularly in times of crisis you must act swiftly, compassionately and decisively for ourselves and for our industry. You should and can expect no less from us going forward.”

Smith, who resigned from the organization, later issued a public apology to Rock, saying in an Instagram post that his behavior was “unacceptable” and that he had reached out to Rock to mend fences.