Jim Carrey: I would have sued Will Smith for $200 million over Oscars slap
Jim Carrey would have had a much different reaction than Chris Rock had he been the one slapped by Will Smith at the 2022 Oscars.
Speaking to CBS News’ Gayle King on Monday, the actor said he would have immediately filed a hefty lawsuit against the Best Actor winner.
“I’d have announced this morning that I was suing Will for $200 million,” said Carrey, 60. “Because that video’s gonna be there forever. It’s gonna be ubiquitous. That insult is gonna last a very long time.”
The “Dumb & Dumber” star went on to say that he was just as appalled by the audience’s seemingly positive reaction to the slap.
“I was sickened. I was sickened by the standing ovation,” he said. “I felt like Hollywood is just spineless en masse. And it really felt like this is a really clear indication that we’re not the cool club anymore.”
Carrey believes the reason Rock, 57, has so far chosen not to press charges against Smith, 53, is because “he doesn’t want the hassle.”
He also said he thinks Smith could have found other ways to show disapproval for the jab — directed at his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith — without putting his hands on the comedian.
“If you wanna yell from the audience and disapprove … or say something on Twitter or whatever [, go ahead],” he argued. “You do not have the right to walk up on stage and smack somebody in the face ’cause they said words.”
While King, 67, agreed with Carrey’s sentiment, she said she felt the situation “escalated to that level.”
“It didn’t escalate. It came out of nowhere because Will has something going on inside him that’s frustrated,” he fired back. “And I wish him the best, I really do. I don’t have anything against Will Smith. He’s done great things, but that was not a good moment.”
Carrey argued that the incident “cast a pall over everybody’s shining moment,” especially those who “worked really hard” to finally take home a win.
“It is no mean feat to go through all the stuff you have to go through when you’re nominated for an Oscar,” he explained. “It’s a gauntlet of devotion that you have to do. It was just a selfish moment that cast a pall over the whole thing.”
As Page Six previously reported, Smith rushed the stage during Sunday’s awards ceremony and hit Rock in the face for making a bald joke about Pinkett Smith, 50, who suffers from alopecia.
The actor then returned to his seat and twice shouted at the comedian, “Keep my wife’s name out of your f–king mouth.”
The incident — which was not scripted — is being investigated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
