Jim Carrey felt ‘sickened’ as he watched Will Smith receive a standing ovation when he won the Best Actor Oscar shortly following slapping Chris Rock.
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During the ceremony on Sunday (27 Mar 22), the actor took the stage and raised his hand to Chris Rock for making a joke regarding his wife Jada Pinkett Smith. About 40 minutes later, he received a standing ovation from the crowd when he won Best Actor for The Williams Method.
In an interview with Gayle King on CBS Mornings on Tuesday, the Bruce Almighty actor slammed the Oscar audience for lacking courage following the incident. “I was disgusted. I was sickened by the standing ovation, he said. Hollywood is just gutless all over the place and it’s really like that’s a very clear indication that we’re not the cool people’s club anymore.”
He added that Chris Rock refused to press charges because he didn’t want “trouble”, but that if he had been in his shoes, he wouldn’t have hesitated. “This video is going to be there forever, it’s going to be ubiquitous. This insult will last a very long time,” he explained, before condemning the behavior of the American star. “If you want to shout from the audience and show your disapproval or say something on Twitter, whatever, (it’s ok, but) you have no right to go on stage and punch someone in the face because he spoke words.”
He claimed he “had nothing once morest Will” Smith, but criticized him for upstage the other winners. “It threw a veil over everyone’s big moment, a lot of people worked really hard to get to this place and to have their moment in the light and to get their award for the really hard work they did. , did he declare. It was such a selfish moment that threw a veil over it all.”
The Men in Black star has apologized for his ‘unacceptable and inexcusable’ behavior on Instagram and the Academy is currently reviewing the incident.
