Oscars: Biggest Controversies Of The Academy Awards

Actor Will Smith going on stage at the Oscars 2022 and slapping actor-comedian Chris Rock has been trending all over social media. Smith went on to win the Best Actor in a leading role soon after the incident. The Academy has also released a statement stating that they don’t condone violence in any form, and that has led to people speculating that maybe Will Smith’s Best Actor award might get taken away.

For the unreversed, here’s what happened: Chris Rock took to the stage in order to present an award for the Best Documentary Feature. Soon enough, the comedian made a joke about actress Jada Pinkett Smith. He said, "Jada, I love you. GI Jane 2, can’t wait to see you." This was a reference to the 1997 film GI Jane where actress Demi Moore sported a similar bald hairstyle, which Pinkett Smith is sporting currently. This dig by Chris Rock didn’t go down well with Pinkett Smith’s husband Will Smith, who in response to the joke, took to the stage and punched Chris Rock. Not just that, after returning to his seat, Will Smith continued to cuss Chris Rock, and he shouted, "Keep my wife’s name out your f*****g mouth (sic)." The entire auditorium just saw the incident in stunned silence wondering whether it was real or just a prank planned by Will Smith and Chris Rock.

The outburst of Will Smith can be credited to the fact that Jada Pinkett Smith suffers from a condition called Alopecia Areata. It causes hair to fall out in patches and at times more than that in quantity. Generally, it affects the scalp (alopecia totalis) and in extreme cases, it may also affect the face and entire body (alopecia universalis). Alopecia Areata often develops suddenly, over the course of just a few days. However, there is no cure for alopecia. In 2018, Jada Pinkett Smith had first revealed her condition while she was speaking on Red Label Talks. She said then said that the condition "was terrifying" to deal with. She had even appeared with a shaved head on social media back in July 2021, and that picture had taken everyone by surprise. But, soon enough, she received a lot of praise from all corners for accepting and taking the condition head-on.

Coming back to Will Smith’s slap at Chris Rock, this isn’t the first time such a big controversy has befallen at the Academy Awards.

Back in 1973, actor Marlon Brando won the Best Actor award at that year’s Academy Award. He won the award for his performance in the mob epic ‘The Godfather’. He beat other contenders in the category that included actors like Michael Caine, Peter O'Toole, Laurence Olivier, and Paul Winfield. But Brando didn’t attend the award, and in his place Native American actress and activist Sacheen Littlefeather went on stage. Brando wished her to take the stage as a political protest. Actor Roger Moore presented her with the Oscar but Littlefeather refused to take it. Once he and co-presenter Liv Ullmann stepped back, Littlefeather began to read a statement from Brando. She went on to reveal to everyone in the audience that Brando could not accept the honour bestowed upon him as he wanted to protest against the film industry’s abuse of Native Americans. There was a lot of applause, from the audience but also a few boos that came along.

In 1974, the Oscar streaker made headlines. The audiences were in for a surprise when gay rights activist Robert Opel rushed onto the stage naked. David Niven “That was almost bound to happen,” said actor David Niven was on stage and was introducing actress Elizabeth Taylor. He went on to also add, “But isn’t it fascinating to think that probably the only laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping off and showing his shortcomings.”

In 2003, when actor Adrien Broody won the Oscar for the Best Actor in ‘The Pianist’, he went on to the stage to collect the award from the Best Actress winner of the previous year, Halle Berry. On stage, things however took an unusual turn when Broody decided to kiss Halle. The embarrassing and improper moment elicited a lot of awkward laughter and a very shocked-looking Halle. Despite the wildly inappropriate incident, she didn’t go all ballistic on stage and maintained her calm and composure. She remained in good humour about the entire thing. However, it was later revealed in an interview that she didn’t consent at all to the situation. During a 2017 interview on Watch What Happens Live, Berry had told presenter Andy Cohen that the kiss came absolutely out of nowhere and that she had no control over it. Reportedly, Berry had stated, "I was too concentrated on 'What the f*** is happening on right now?'"

Then in 2016, the hashtag #OscarSoWhite became the high point of the event. People from all over started commenting about how less people of colour were nominated at the Oscars. Also, owing to this celebs like Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, Spike Lee and others boycotted the event to mark their protest. Ever since the hashtag became hugely popular around the world, the Academy has slowly and steadily tried to be more inclusive of people from all races and colours in their nominations.

The Envelopegate in 2017 is one of the most memorable ones. The award for The Best Film was given to the musical ‘La La Land’. Everyone from the cast and crew of the film went on stage to accept the award. But soon enough, it was found out that ‘Moonlight’ was the actual winner. PricewaterhouseCoopers, the agency that was in charge of tabulating and preserving Oscar ballots and the subsequent results, had mistakenly handed over the award presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway an incorrect envelope. They ended up with a copy of the best actress envelope, which went to actress Emma Stone for ‘La La Land’, rather than the one for best film, which was to go to ‘Moonlight’. It was just a mix-up, but a terrible one at that. It came to be known as the ‘Envelopgate’.

Over the years, the Academy Awards have had its fair share of controversies, and the latest incident of Will Smith slapping Chris Rock seems to have brought back memories of all such controversies at the prestigious awards night.