An angry Will Smith has stunned the Oscars audience, hitting comedian Chris Rock after he made a comment about Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith while presenting an award.
Up for a best actor award, Smith, 57, has the internet buzzing with speculation about whether the violence was scripted.
During his presentation, comedian Rock made a handful of jokes, including about Jada, while presenting the Best Documentary Feature prize.
Rock mocked some of the famous faces in the crowd, with the King Richard actor taking offense when Rock went on to poke fun at Pinkett-Smith’s shaved-head look.
“Jada, love ya. ‘G.I. Jane 2’, can’t wait to see it,’ he said.
Although Smith laughed at first, Pinkett-Smith looked unimpressed and Smith then walked to the stage, hit the presenter and walked away back to his seat in the audience.
Rock said: “Oh Wow. Will Smith just smacked the s***t out of me.”
Smith then shouted from his seat: “Take my wife’s name out of your f****** mouth.”
“Wow dude. It was a ‘G.I. Jane’ joke,” Rock replied.
The Men in Black host then again said: “Keep my wife’s name out of your f****** mouth.”
Rock appeared stunned as he said: “I’m going to OK… I’ll keep going? That was, er, the greatest night in the history of television. Okay.
“So we are here to give a documentary out, to give an Oscar for Best Documentary.
“Now the beauty of documentaries, they make you feel smart, like you read a book or something but all you really did was get high and watch Netflix. So here we go, the nominees are…”
Summer of Soul was then announced as winner of the category.
– with BANG Showbiz
