2023-11-29 01:00:35
Sunday, March 27, 2022. Early morning on Monday the 28th for European night owls. Dolby Hollywood Theater, California. Oscar ceremony. After the halfway point of the gala, presenter Chris Rock makes a ‘joke’ about Jada Pinkett’s shaved hair. He compares her to Lieutenant O’Neil played by Demi Moore in the film of the same name. She rolls her eyes, but the loudest reaction is that of Will Smith, who bursts onto the stage and slaps the comedian. Back in his seat, he bellows: “Get my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth!” And he insists, repeating the order a second time.
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What just happened? Immediately becomes the big question of the night, both in the theater and in each room that attended the shocking moment. Did you really just punch him? An incredulity that culminated when, minutes later, the performer was awarded the statuette for Best Actor for The Williams method. Meanwhile, Jada did not stand up. He didn’t scream. And, of course, he didn’t hit anyone. But what did he feel?
The true protagonist – without asking for it – has decided to tell it almost two years later in Worthy. The love that I always deserved (Libros Cúpula), his recently published memoirs. Her testimony about the embarrassing slap is part of her last chapters, since she previously goes through her life to, as Britney Spears did recently – saving the notorious differences in her biographies –, to take over her own story. her. And at the same time, get a good economic return from it. She covers everything from her unconventional childhood in Baltimore to her marriage to one of the most well-known men on the planet, to her suicidal thoughts.
By the time the fateful Oscar night of the slap arrived, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett had not been living together as a married couple for more than six years, but they were still legally married. They decided to turn their ‘relationship’ into an “association” with which to maintain their creative and business collaborations.
In fact, it was she who convinced him in 2018 to hire Reinaldo Marcus Green as director of the film about the father of tennis players Venus and Serena Williams, which ended up earning him his first statuette. He proposed that she participate as executive producer, an offer that she initially accepted, but an argument between the two ended up causing her to leave.
At the beginning of 2020, Will asked Jada to accompany him to the various awards ceremonies that would culminate with the Oscars in March. Proposition that she describes as “a pleasant surprise” and to which she said yes in an attempt to put together a new “continuation” of her bond. “We had been living separate lives and we were there as a family, not as husband and wife,” she still clarifies. This is only part of the context of what ended up happening at the gala. Another relevant part is the one that concerned Chris Rock.
“It was common knowledge that he had messed with me in the past,” on the same stage, at the 2016 ceremony, which would go down in history as the #OscarsSoWhite. The actress was one of the figures who complained about the lack of nominations for people who were not white. “People declared that I was pissed because Will hadn’t been nominated by The truth hurts, which couldn’t be further from reality,” he says. The comedian was also in charge of presenting that ceremony, and was offended that Jada had raised the question in a video about whether they should continue supporting the awards granted by the Hollywood Academy “if they did not systematically celebrate the talent of non-white people.”
The actress claims that she never called him to ask him not to lead the delivery, but instead stuck to publishing that, although he would not attend or see it, he could not think of “a more suitable person” to lead it than him. “My friend, good luck,” she added in her message to the comedian she had met in the film. Madagascar. The actress was the target of hesitation on the part of the comedian in the initial monologue. “There was a train wreck coming,” she notes of how she felt, six years later, when she saw him walk out on stage even though they had both apologized for what happened.
Beyond their clash, the producer reveals that between Will Smith and Rock there had been “lack of respect since the 80s.” “Like many old feuds, it started with a big misunderstanding for which I don’t have enough therapists or lawyers to begin to explain,” he says without giving more details.
Heartbreaking, lonely, confusing
“I rolled my eyes,” the actress admits of her instant reaction to Rock’s comment, frustrated that “most people didn’t seem to understand how devastating alopecia can be.” She speaks for the number of people whose condition she describes as “much worse” than hers: “I wasn’t personally offended, I was offended because he made fun of alopecia.”
“I’m sitting, frozen, in my front row seat, just left of center stage. I’m confused. “In what I can only describe as one of the most surreal events of my life, I try to maintain my composure as I try to understand what just happened and urge my brain to catch up,” the actress writes about the events. seconds in which Will Smith came down the steps and returned to her side.
As she reveals, she also doubted whether it had been a staged performance or something real, since from her angle she could not see if the blow had actually made contact. She had seen professional wrestlers knocked down by the force of Will’s arms in the ring boxing, more than once. This had to be a setup. Otherwise, how could Chris stand as if nothing had happened?” she asked herself. The next sentence confirmed his suspicions. It hadn’t been a setup.
Next was the screening of the nominated documentaries while those present continued “in shock”. Rock took advantage of the videos to approach and apologize. “I really didn’t say it with bad intentions,” he told her. “I can’t right now, this is all because of shit from the past,” she responded. “Will growled at her again, making it clear that he didn’t want her to address me,” she describes. The comedian announced Summer of Soul as the winner and the first ‘visitors’ arrived, who did not pay attention to her. Denzel Washington and Bradley Cooper reached out to offer their support to Will. “For the next few minutes I sat alone, trying to find my own solid ground,” she recalls.
For the next few minutes I sat alone, trying to find my own firm ground.
Jada Pinkett Smith
In a new commercial break, their publicists came into action, reporting that Chris had indicated that he was not going to report, which was what allowed Jada to fully understand what had just happened and ask Will to make sure. “Did you really hit Chris?” she wanted to know. He nodded. The first person who leaned in to check on her was Lupita Nyong’o, followed by Nicole Kidman and her partner Keith Urban, Ramsey Naito, Tiffany Haddish and Queen Latifah. “They helped me keep my feet on the ground. At least enough to let go of my disbelief a little,” she admits.
Jada points out that she can’t give Will Smith’s version of events, but notes that it had to do with her “own personal battles” that were “revealed on a world stage.” What she does share is what his decision was: “What I did know, for the first time in six years since our breakup, was that I would be by his side in this storm as his wife, no matter what happened.” . She wouldn’t abandon him, but she wouldn’t fight for him either like she had tried to do so many times in the past. “This fight was his.”
After what happened, there were those who pointed out that her gesture of rolling her eyes was proof that Will Smith’s excessive reaction had been her fault, as if with that look she had asked him for help, or even defended her: “Blame it on woman is nothing new. It was easy to spin the story of how Hollywood’s perfect megastar had fallen into disgrace because of his imperfect wife. Patriarchy depends on blaming the fall of humanity on poor Eve.”
And he takes the opportunity to mention another reason why he found the episode equally “disturbing”: “Seeing a conflict of that nature between two black men on a ‘white’ stage, just as it was seeing how a black man insulted a black woman on the same stage. One more time”.
Despite how turbulent everything was, the actress decided that same night – in which she continued posing next to the actor, already with the Oscar in her hand – what her attitude would be from that moment on: “Guarantee him that I was not going to separate myself from he (…). The slap helped me learn to walk hand in hand with him, with all the bats and ogres, along with the part of him that had been banished to the depths of his darkest exiled lands, and to be a torch of love for him until “You could find your own.”
Jada does not mention the slap again in her memoirs. She dedicates the last episode, titled The coronation of the queen of my heart, to make a plea for self-love, which is extended to all its readers. And he insists on love’s ability to help the parts of each person that may be “lost” to “find their way back home.” Also those of others. A belief that resonates with the reason that, pages before, he used as a justification for why he wanted to stay by Will Smith’s side.
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