Judd Apatow says Will Smith ‘could have killed’ Chris Rock in Oscars slap
Director Judd Apatow led Hollywood outrage at Will Smith’s shocking attack on Chris Rock — insisting the “Bad Boys” star “lost his mind” and “could have killed” the comedian.
As a series of A-list stars — including Denzel Washington and Nicole Kidman — were filmed rushing up to console Smith after his Oscars attack, a flurry of others went online to condemn his shocking violence.
“He could have killed him,” insisted director Judd Apatow in a since-deleted tweet shared by Variety editor-at-large Kate Aurthur
“That’s pure out-of-control rage and violence … He lost his mind,” insisted the “Knocked Up” director.
Apatow noted how Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, have “heard a million jokes about them in the last three decades” and are far from new to “the world of Hollywood and comedy.”
“Also — GI Jane was gorgeous,” Apatow noted of Demi Moore’s shaven-headed movie character whom Rock, 57, had likened Jada Pinkett to, sparking Smith to storm the stage and slap him.
“What exactly is insulting about being compared to a ripped, stunning Demi?” Apatow asked, according to other deleted tweets shared by Rolling Stone.
He accused Smith of creating “toxic nonsense” out of “pure narcissism.”
“I’m glad Chris is ok. Will learned nothing training for Ali. Will Smith’s punches are as soft as his raps,” Apatorw quipped of the actor who said he spent two years training to portray Muhammad Ali in his 2001 biopic.
Others feared that Smith could have set a dangerous precedent suggesting audiences were entitled to meet jokes with violence.
“Now we all have to worry about who wants to be the next Will Smith in comedy clubs and theaters,” Kathy Griffin warned.
British stand-up comedian London Hughes also tweeted, “So public assault is the answer to an insensitive joke in 2022??! Good to know. I’ll be doing my next Netflix special over Zoom.”
“Star Wars” legend Mark Hamill, 70, called it the “ugliest Oscars moment ever” in a hashtag to an Instagram post condemning Smith.
“Stand-up comics are very adept at handling hecklers. Violent physical assault… not so much,” the actor best known for playing Luke Skywalker said.
Janai Nelson, the president of the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund, also feared Smith’s attack would spark further dangers.
“I know we’re all still processing, but the way casual violence was normalized tonight by a collective national audience will have consequences that we can’t even fathom in the moment,” she warned.
Others noted the shame Smith had brought himself on what should have been a historic night for his Best Actor victory.
“What a thing to wake up to. Only the fifth black man in nearly 100 years to win an Oscar for male lead, and the first in 16 years, resorts to violence instead of [utilizing] the power of words to slay Chris Rock. Then he claims God and Love made him do it,” award-winning author Bernardine Evaristo tweeted.
Despite the outrage, Smith did appear to get the support of his wife for his violence in her honor. The Smiths appeared to hold hands throughout the rest of the night, Variety’s executive editor, Ramin Setoodeh, tweeted.
At least one of their kids, Jaden, 23, also seemed to publicly defend the star, tweeting, “And That’s How We Do It.”
Nicole Kidman, 54, quickly became a meme with a photo of her open-mouthed in shock at the event — even though the photographer who took it later explained it was taken before the show started, and hours before Smith’s slap.
The actress was one of those who then went up to hug Smith after his shocking attack, hugging him and sharing a message with his wife, Variety’s Setoodeh said, sharing video of the exchange.
Actress Tiffany Haddish was one of the few to publicly defend Smith, insisting that he “protected his wife.”
“As a woman who had a husb, I wish my husb wld have stood up 4 me the way (Will) stood up 4 (Jada),” she told the Los Angeles Times. “That’s what every woman wants, right? … And that’s what a man is supposed 2 do.”
Rapper Nicki Minaj also defended Smith for acting like a “real man.”
“You just got to witness in real time what happens in a man’s soul when he looks over to the woman he loves & sees her holding back tears from a ‘little joke’ at her expense. This is what any & every real man feels in that instant,” she tweeted.
“While y’all seeing the joke he’s seeing her pain.”
Others, like Minnie Driver, said that they “understand all the sides” of the fight. “It was deeply personal. We were all privy to … emotions running really high,” she told Variety. “It’s hard to watch somebody’s pain like that.”
Sophia Bush said that Smith and Rock “both need a breather.”
“Hitting him was not okay. AND his ‘joke’ was cruel & personal. All of it, awful,” she tweeted.
