Will Smith's Chris Rock Slap Overshadowed Oscars 2022's Biggest Triumphs
Will Smith's Chris Rock slap, in response to a poorly-aimed jibe about his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith's hair, may have occupied the entire 2022 Oscars news cycle and undermined his King Richard Best Actor win. But the slap doesn't overshadow the genuine triumphs made at the 2022 Oscars for marginalized representation. In an awards ceremony that critics and equality watchdogs so often scrutinize, the Academy made some historic decisions and filmmakers broke new ground with their achievements.
Smith's visceral reaction to Chris Rock's joke – a hearty slap, followed by a request to "keep [his] wife's name out of [Chris Rock's] f**king mouth" – was the slap heard around the world that stained a groundbreaking Oscars for Smith, looming over the conclusion of a quest for an Oscar that began with Ali two decades ago. His performance as Richard Williams, Venus and Serena Williams' overbearing father, is a tour de force, and will now sit just behind his ill-judged slap in the public imagination. The impact moves beyond Smith's self-installed personal roadblock into something even more distracting and obstructive, but audiences mustn't let it.
Related: King Richard Ending Explained: What Happened To Everybody After The Movie
The moment has brought to the fore a lot of discussion about violent, toxic masculinity, but it's important not to let the moment drown out the beautiful signs of progress that emerged from the ceremony. As a film about the only hearing member of a profoundly Deaf family, CODA took home the Best Picture award – a landmark for Deaf representation in cinema since The Sound of Metal's arguable snub in 2021. Jane Campion became the first female winner of both a Best Director award (for this year's Power of the
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