Comedy actor Jim Carrey spoke out publicly Tuesday on CBS “This Morning” about Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Academy Awards, and he did not limit his disdain to only Smith.
“I was sickened by the standing ovation,” Carrey told Gayle King, “I just 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’s comments reference the way Smith was treated by his fellow celebrities after he won “Best Actor,” despite physically assaulting the show’s host just a short while earlier, TMZ reported.
When King alleged that anyone else in Smith’s position would have been arrested, or at the very least escorted out of the awards show, Carrey said that he should have been. Carrey suggested to King that the only reason that Rock isn’t suing Smith is that the host “doesn’t want the hassle.”
“I’d have announced this morning that I was suing Will for $200,000,000 dollars ’cause that video is going to be there forever, it’s going to be ubiquitous. That insult is going to last a very long time,” Carrey told King. “You do not have the right to smack someone in the face because they said words.”
King then suggested that the situation between Rock and Smith “escalated” to the level where Smith slapped Rock, which Carrey completely disagreed with. (RELATED: Will Smith’s ‘Slapgate’ Has Fractured Both Political Parties)
“It didn’t escalate. It came out of nowhere because Will has something going on inside him that frustrated, 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,” he went on to say.
Carrey said that Smith’s actions were a “selfish moment that cast a pall over” the Oscars ceremony and all of the hard work that the actors, crews, and producers had to do to get recognition for their work, according to TMZ.