The Reel Rejects - MOVIE NEWS: Greg's Thoughts on Will Smith & The Slappening

Episode Date: April 5, 2022

On the night of the 94th Academy Awards Ceremony on March 27th, 2022, as Chris Rock stepped up to present the Best Documentary Feature award, Oscar History changed forever. Fresh from the ceremony, Greg shares his thoughts on The Joke, Will Smith's reaction, and what may go down as one of the most infamous moments in Oscar history... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-reel-rejects/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Did you guys know that originally Will Smith was approached by Quentin Tarantino to play Django, Django Unchained. And he turned down the role. He recently talked about, well, not recently, but like a couple years ago, we talked about it in an interview of one of those actors' roundtables. It had to be a love story, not a vengeance story. Oh, oh. I don't believe in violence as the reaction. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, okay, so I just got back from an Oscars party. Now, generally, I've kind of given up on the Oscars. I think they can be quite boring. The awards don't really mean much to me. I haven't even seen most of the films that actually came out

that were nominated, to be honest. So in my mind, I was like, look, this, I'm just going to hang out with some friends. I was surprisingly getting most of my picks right because the Oscars can be really predictable when it comes to nominations and stuff. And then the greatest thing in Oscars history ever happened. This is a night to remember, ladies and gentlemen, history. Memes for weeks. The most talked about thing on the internet, like I thought the most talked about thing coming out of the Oscars would be that random category they were presenting for like fan favorite cheer moment and then Zach Snyder's Justice League won and then fan favorite movie and Zach Snyder's Army of the Dead one. I was like, this is what all the talk on Twitter is going to be about. It's going to be all

about this. I was wrong. Like 10 minutes later, I was way wrong. In case you guys don't know, I'm so shocked if you don't. But in case you guys don't know, Chris Rock presented an award for Best Documentary. I believe that was the category. And then he was making some jokes. It's Chris Rock are respected to make some jokes. He made some jokes about Penelope Cruz and Harvey of our damn couples jokes as Chris Rock likes to make couples jokes. Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, sit in front row with the Oscars. He made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith, saying, I can't wait to see you in G.I. Jane 2.

Apparently, Big Willie got provoked. Smack the crap out of Chris Rock and changed Oscars forever. Set a precedent. Apparently, you can go up to people, smack the presenter, and nothing's going to happen to you. Depending on your star level and the clout you have for that, night and the fact that you're going to win an award that evening it it was wild I'm gonna ask you guys right afront what did you think about what happened what was your reaction to it how do you feel overall who was right who was wrong I want to hear your thoughts in

the comments below I'm gonna talk you guys through my reaction of experiencing this and then I'm also gonna give some of my thoughts and feelings on it as well the Oscars are going they're going fine it's actually a pretty enjoyable Oscars for the most part Amy Schumer's doing a great job when Chris Rock is out there presenting the award he's doing his speech and then he was what happened. He makes the G.I. Jane joke. And I can't, I could show you some footage, but I can't play it because I know this video will get blocked because I know how ABC is. He makes the joke. And then at first, well, Smith, he's laughing. He's laughing. So I was like,

everything just seems fine. He's laughing about it. Jada Pinkett Smith, evidently not happy at all. It is so apparent. She is not happy. Cuts back to Chris Rock. He's doing his thing. And the crowd at first is going, oh, and Chris Rock says something to the effect of like, it was a light one. or whatever like it wasn't that bad of a joke and in my mom like it's not that bad of a joke she has a she has a shaved head and then he said gij and like that's an old-ass movie like this is a stupid joke will smith starts walking up to him you see chris rock laughing his ass off at will smith approaching him we only see the back of will smith said so we don't know what will smith's face looks like in that moment so will smith walks up to him chris rog leaned in almost as if he's like

come on in and hit me like his face is leaned in with laughter i thought will smith was just going to get on the mic or some shit. I thought that's all he was going to do is just a freaking like start making a joke or make a joke about Chris Rock or whatever. All of a sudden, bam! Oh wow! Like the perfect form. Perfect form. The all the days of Will Smith come out. It was a great hit. All things considered, you know, it's great hit. Assault, yes. But a great hit overall with Will Smith, man. Then he goes back down. Now if you live in Australia, you got the uncensored version. And apparently you can find the audio, the actually uncensored version on on sites like YouTube and Twitter.

But in the States, in our mind, when he smacked him, it looked like a bit because, you know, like Chris Rock didn't fall down or whatever. All of us thought it was like some weird joke. And Chris Rock says Will Smith just smacked the... out of me. That's how it sounded to us. And then all the audio went out. And then you're cutting back to Will Smith, who's looking pissed off and you can see Chris Rock

feeling pretty awkward about the whole ordeal. And then it starts to register with us, like, I think this is actually very real. I think Will Smith just got really mad about a joke that he just seemed like fine with us. second ago and then got up there, got very reactive, and smacked the shit out of Chris Rock. Here's what I think really happened. At least this is how what I, what I, in the moment what I thought happened. Chris Rock made a funny. Will Smith laughed at the funny. Looked to his wife. Wife didn't find it funny. Will Smith realized, I'm going to be in the doghouse unless I do something about this. I got to stand up for her because I know what it's like when you're in a relationship

and you think something's funny. They're significant other dozen that's at the end. expensive her then you're like oh shit I shouldn't have laughed at that I need to correct this now so he did the one thing he could do walk up on stage smack the shit out of Chris Rock is what I did it that's how it just registered to me in the moment it was crazy and we made it crazier we made it crazier for all of us is the fact that we all knew Will Smith was going to win that night there was no question about it so it just made it go out of all nights like it's already a bad night to do like you never just want to do that but out of any night to do this all

the night you're finally gonna win your Oscar this happens like what is your speech gonna be what is your speech gonna be so on the uncensored version what it when i watched it on the car ride home after chris rock says will just smack the shit out of me will smith says keep my wife's name out of your fucking mouth chris rock is like dude it was a g-i jane joke at the time i was like in the same dude it's just a gijian joke chill out you're a couple who's in the public spotlight like all the time you your relationship seems to be like on blast you even did a sit-down interview where you really exposed a lot of things about your relationship right away when you're that level of celebrity and you're allowing yourself to be that exposed usually that means like entertainers

comedians people are going to make jokes of you and you just kind of kind of be ready for it if you're going to be willing to expose that side of you that's just how i was registering at the time there was other information that was yet to learn uh but at the time that's how i was thinking about will smith did further in real anger like rage keep my wife's name out of your If I say too hard, YouTube gets a little something about the whole thing. And then Chris Rock made a little crack of, this was the best night in television history or so you made a joke of that something like that. Here it is.

It made the Oscars truly exciting, more exciting than it's ever been. That was crazy. So come to find out. I did not know this. Apparently, Jada has actually been very public about this, but I don't follow the lives of them. The question is, did Chris Rock know about this? She has a disease called alopecia.

It's a medical term for baldness. so she suffers for baldness so it's not her fault that she's bald it's a condition that she has and that's really unfortunate and that just changes the whole context of the joke right there's several ways comedic because comedians seem to always be defending themselves against like the free will to make a joke about anything and anybody i get that a lot of comedians feel that way so i i don't know if chris rock didn't knew that or not or he did know that and he was like i could still make a joke anyway because i don't think the joke's that bad that is a very sensitive thing to say in front of like millions of people it's not really about what chris rock believes if that's offensive or not

it's more about how will the person on the receiving end of that comment how will they feel about that and if jada is the kind of individual to be hurt and offended by that then you shouldn't make that joke especially if you already know that she has this disease that she probably would not want to be made fun about and one of the biggest nights in their life because they're a husband and wife just having the spotlight put on you like that see i i can get that the question is she will smith have walked up there and smacked the shit out of christ rock Probably not. That was probably not the way to handle it. I know that there's most likely a lot of women across the world, a lot of people, maybe not just women, but a lot of men too, who are like, you know, if I was made fun of in public, I would expect my man to go up there and just beat the shit out of that guy. And to me, I'm like, well, it really depends on the situation. And, hey, you know, if this is the Oscars, you know, I'm like, I might give a look like I'm pretty upset by that joke, but I'm not going to go up there and smack the guy. I mean, hey, I could get, I could get arrested or fine for assault. or something like that like this this is not a good look and then it just started making me killing fact that will smith just kind of got away with it started making me go to is will smith just like

do this does he when he gets mad at people does he just smack them like has he just smack people on set before like what's his attitude like if there's a joke that's made that you just you just can't roll with because it comes in the name of protection and love because he gave this speech and in between before his Oscar win as publicist was talking to him a lot there's like photos of like Denzel talking to him and Tyler Perry I believe like there's these people congregating with him to talk him through it. And it seemed like there was a lot of people in support of him in that moment, you know, like he got sensitive, he was provoked, something happened.

And you're in a room full of a bunch of artists who are all very sensitive individuals who also practice the art of empathy. They're not going to be like social media about it. You know, there's going to be a lot more understanding. They probably know, and they definitely know Will Smith better than either one of us. It makes sense how he's going to have a lot of support surrounding him in a moment like that. And it seemed like a lot of it's side. At least that's the way it appears.

That was the impression given off. So Will Smith gives his speech, you know, we're all. like, what's he going to say? You know, what's Will Smith going to talk about? Is he going to mention Chris Rock? He's going to talk shit about it. He immediately starts to talk about people he had to protect, people involved with the movie characters, real-life people, talking about love makes you do crazy things. And the way he gave his speech made our friend Brandon Hanna in the room make the best comment ever. That man has a damn good publicist. He really does because holy balls it was a great speech there's still like when you revisit the situation that

happened i'm like does the speech eliminate and you know all with everything that happened no it definitely doesn't in the moment at time you're like damn there's a powerful speech it seems really sincere seems very emotional and i at least get where he's coming from it at this moment in time and it seemed like at least the way the narrative suddenly changed on that there was all coming from a place of not necessarily ego but a place of protecting a loved one and especially when you find out that jada has alpecia you're like okay he was really going out there protecting her. I still think there are other ways it could have been handled, but he had a human moment.

He's human. I've met plenty of people who've started a fight they shouldn't have had. They felt like they regretted that they maybe shouldn't have done it. We also have apologized to the academy. He apologized to his fellow nominees. Didn't apologize Chris Rock, but he apologized to other people. And I'm wondering, too, like, is there more history with him in Chris Rock? Because I know that a few years ago, when it came to the whole boycotting the Oscar situation,

Chris Rock, when he was hosting the Oscar, made a joke directed at them. Wasn't about this, but he made a joke at them. So maybe there's more of a history there that we don't really know. I think he could have handled it differently. I think he could have, like, you know, like at least displayed that he wasn't happy with it. Hell, even if he just yelled instead of, you know,

actually going out there and hitting him because that is an act of violence, that's bad. It's like, it's that thing of like, dude, I totally get it. You were standing up for the woman you love. I totally understand you guys have had a lot of heat on you. And there's always seems like the media's trying to take you guys down. So you're protecting her in this moment. That's supposed to just be a beautiful night.

Like, I get it, you probably shouldn't have smacked them. Chris Rock, you probably shouldn't have made that joke. Like, you're like, whoa, guys, both of you probably shouldn't have done this. I totally understand that. Regardless, how do I feel about this? It weirdly made for the most entertaining night in Oscar history. Like, this was a night to remember. It was wild.

And that fact that that shit got put on display, good job to Will Smith's publicist. Good job to a support team. Congratulations, Will Smith, on winning that Oscar. And man, I would never fuck with that guy. It's just crazy because he always comes across as like the nicest dude ever. Even in that moment, you're just like, he seemed like he was just protecting her. But holy crap, like, he'll just go up to you and hit you if you do something wrong. That was, uh, that was, that was pretty crazy.

I just thought I'm going to be like thinking about this all the time and talking about it for very long time. So I just went off on camera with you guys talking about really quick. Thanks for being here. Chat, chat soon.