MOVIE NEWS – The world hasn’t been treating Will Smith with kid gloves since his Oscar slap – which he himself has since come to regret – but now it seems the Academy has made its own decision on the matter. Will Smith will be banned from all Academy events for 10 years.

Will Smith was undoubtedly in the spotlight when he slapped Chris Rock, who was joking around on his wife’s shaved head, at the 2022 Oscars. We all saw a lot of news and even more memes about the incident, but it all had some serious consequences for Will Smith. The actor recently said he was resigning his Academy membership and is deeply sorry for his actions, and the Academy’s Board of Governors has just made a decision to ban Will Smith from all Academy events for 10 years. Here is their statement as presented by CNN:

“The Board has decided, for a period of 10 years from April 8, 2022, Mr. Smith shall not be permitted to attend any Academy events or programs, in person or virtually, including but not limited to the Academy Awards. The 94th Oscars were meant to be a celebration of the many individuals in our community who did incredible work this past year; however, those moments were overshadowed by the unacceptable and harmful behavior we saw Mr. Smith exhibit on stage. During our telecast, we did not adequately address the situation in the room. For this, we are sorry. This was an opportunity for us to set an example for our guests, viewers and our Academy family around the world, and we fell short — unprepared for the unprecedented.”

In addition to the Academy ban, the actor faces many other, perhaps even worse, consequences. He has been condemned by many of his colleagues for his behaviour at the gala, many of his projects have been stalled – including two Netflix projects and development on Bad Boys 4 – and his biography has been scrapped, at least for the time being. Although the actor apologised immediately after the event, admitting that he acted out of anger without thinking, and he regrets the bad light his slap had cast on the Oscars. Even after resigning his membership of the Academy, many felt that this was not enough, and there was talk of prosecuting him or withdrawing his Best Actor award. However, Chris Rock did not want to take legal action and the Academy did not want to take back the award.

Even so, it is fair to say that the actor has to pay a big price for slapping Chris Rock.

Source: Movie Web