Smith shouted at Rock to “keep my wife's name out of your (expletive) mouth,” and the crowd hushed as it became clear this was no act. Smith later won the best actor Oscar; Rock chose not to file a police report.
“Will Smith owes Chris Rock a huge apology. There is no excuse for what he did. He's lucky Chris is not filing assault charges,” producer, director and actor Rob Reiner commented on Twitter.
George Takei said Smith's losing his cool was a bad look when so many people were watching: “Many people, especially kids, look up to actors. Because of that, we have an obligation to try to be good role models. With celebrity comes
Judd Apatow was highly critical of Smith in a now-deleted Twitter post, describing the attack “out of control rage and violence.” He noted that celebrities have been the target of jokes for decades: “They've heard a million jokes about them in the last three decades. They are not freshman in the world of Hollywood and comedy. He lost his mind.”
Richard Marx said no poor joke justified the response: “I guess millions of people can't comprehend that no level of fame or accolades gives license to commit battery over a verbal joke.”
And Mark Hamill called the incident the ugliest Oscar moment ever, tweeting “Stand-up comics are very adept at handling hecklers. Violent physical assault... not so much.”
Janai Nelson, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, wrote: “I know we're all still processing, but the way casual violence was normalized tonight by a collective national audience will have consequences that we can't even fathom in the moment.”
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