Chris Rock Was Praised for Carrying on at Oscars After Being Slapped

It’s certainly been an Oscars to remember…

Will Smith lost it at Chris Rock after he made a joke about his wife…

It’s been the talk of the entire event.

And one thing that people have had a lot to say about is Rock’s ability to carrying on presenting after being slapped…

Awards season is in full swing.

And the highly anticipated Oscars has rolled around once again.

This year, at the 94th Academy Awards ceremony, the biggest names in the industry are hitting the red carpet…

And they look as fabulous as ever.

As we know, the show has been without a host for the last 3 years, due to the pandemic…

And it seems as though they’re making up for that by having 3 hosts this year, with Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes, and Regina Hall taking the stage.

Making it the first Oscars in over a decade with multiple hosts…

And first ever to be hosted by 3 women.

We love to see it!

And women are conquering other areas too…

We all remember when Nomadland Chloé Zhao made history last year, when she won Best Picture and Best Director, becoming the second-ever woman and first of color to win in this category.

Well it looks like she’s paved the way for more female directors this year…

Jane Campion, who directed Netflix’s The Power Of The Dog, is the first woman to be nominated twice!

Long-standing gender boundaries are continuing to be broken each year…

Although it did take nearly fifty years for the Oscars to even comprehend nominating a woman for Best Director.

And shockingly, the first to win was Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker in 2021…

Only 2 women have won so far, with just 7 being nominated overall.

And we still have a long way to go…

Winning Best Picture at the BAFTA’s and picking up the Best Cinamatography gong at the Oscars, don’t miss WW1 epic 1917, with screenings starting on Friday at 7.30pm. https://t.co/5RWRFtJZu6 pic.twitter.com/XLOfN9ikK0

— Junction Goole (@junction_goole) February 12, 2020

Only 3 movies directed by women have ever won the awards for Best International Film. And the first time a woman was nominated for Best Cinematography wasn’t until 2017, and none have won that award yet.

But thanks to Jane Campion, the streaming service Netflix is rubbing shoulders with Hollywood studios…

Who has taken the Academy’s prize for Best Picture for over 90 years.

Many questioned whether this would be the year that the Best Picture was won by a streaming company.

Netflix received a whopping twenty-seven Oscar nominations, including The Power Of The Dog, and Don’t Look Up for Best Picture.

Sign language has also stepped into the spotlight this year, with the deaf community finally being represented on the big screen…

Eternals and A Quiet Place Part II, are 2 of the top-grossing movies of 2021, in which sign language is featured by the main characters.

Sign language is a huge part of Audible, which was nominated for Best Short Subject Documentary.

“I think our initial goal was to really show that deaf people are pretty much like everybody else,” Executive Producer Nyle DiMarco said. “We have the same issues. We’re all just trying to figure ourselves out.”

Best Picture nominees, CODA and Drive My Car, also bring sign language to the forefront.

“It was just a natural conclusion for the director. It wasn’t being aware of inclusion or diversity; just someone who uses sign language as their natural first language,” said the producer of Drive My Car, Teruhisa Yamamoto.

Sadly, the discussion of diversity comes to a holt, as just 4 actors of color have been nominated in this year’s lineup.

Ariana DeBose, Aunjanue Ellis, Will Smith, and Denzel Washington have been nominated, which is a lot less than last year, which saw 9 actors of color nominated for their performances.

This year, Washington is once again the most-nominated Black actor at the event, with a total of 10 nominations and 2 wins…

This time for The Tragedy of Macbeth.

Will Smith was nominated for best actor for the third time, and got his first nomination as a producer for King Richard.

First-timer, Aunjanue Ellis represented the sports drama as a supporting actress, with the movie gaining 6 nominations.

DeBose the West Side Story star, also became the first Afro-Latina actor and openly queer woman of color ever nominated.

Guillermo Del Toro also represented the Latino community with Nightmare Alley, which was nominated for Best Picture.

Lin-Manuel Miranda was also nominated for the original song Dos Oruguitas from Encanto.

And the producer of Encanto, Yvett Merino has become the first-ever Latina nominated in the animated feature category.

But that’s not all people are talking about…

Because Will Smith punched Chris Rock.

Rock made a ‘G.I. Jane 2’ joke about Jada, and although Smith initially seemed to laugh it off…

The audience saw him get on stage and hit the comedian.

He later addressed the incident in his Best Actor Award acceptance speech.

He spoke about being protecting his family in his speech and apologized to the Academy and to his fellow nominees.

“Love will make you do crazy things,” the star noted.

“I’m being called on in my life to love people and to protect people and to be a river to my people,” he also said in his speech adding that “in this business, you’ve gotta be able to have people disrespecting you.”

Videos have also emerged showing Smith after the confrontation.

In one video, shared to Twitter by Ramin Setoodeh, Smith could be seen sitting in his seat as he was approached by a woman who is reportedly his publicist.

Setoodeh, the executive editor of Variety, shared the video writing: “Will Smith’s publicist came over and talked to him at the last commercial. There was also someone standing next to Jada.”

Footage has also showed Smith being approached by several fellow celebs.

Scott Feinber, The Hollywood Reporter’s awards columnist, shared a video to Twitter showing Smith being pulled aside by Denzel Washington and Tyler Perry.

Feinber wrote in his tweet that during the commercials, Smith was “pulled aside and comforted by Denzel Washington and Tyler Perry, who motion for him to brush it off.”

“Will appears to wipe tears from his eyes as he sits back down with Jada, with Denzel comforting Jada and Will’s rep by his side.”

People around the world have had a lot to say about Rock’s comment and Smith’s actions.

They’ve also had a lot to say about the way that Rock handled being slapped, with many praising him for continuing with presenting…

Do you think Will Smith, after asssulting Chris Rock, sat down and revised his acceptance speech to focus on “protecting his family” then quickly worked up some tears? Btw, kudos to Chris Rock for keeping his composure and carrying on – class act.

— @Seven18 (@Seven18) March 28, 2022

Rock has been praised for continuing with presenting an award despite being slapped.

After being hit by Smith on stage, Rock said: “Wow, Will Smith just smacked the sh*t out of me.”

As Smith shouted at Rock from his seat, he then said: “It was a G.I. Jane joke.”

Rock appeared to look shaken by the incident, but tried to laugh it off as he said: “That was the greatest night in the history of television.”

And then continued to present an award.