AWARD SHOWS
Jimmy Kimmel praises Chris Rock’s reaction to Will Smith slap
Jimmy Kimmel believes Chris Rock “should be proud” of how he handled the incident
The 2023 Academy Awards is coming sooner than ever, and host Jimmy Kimmel has been getting ready for the show. He’s also recently shared his thoughts on the Will Smith/Chris Rock slapping incident at last year’s Oscars.
The award marks Kimmel’s second time hosting the prestigious award show, the first time being in 2017 and again in 2018. Kimmel’s hosting duties mark the show’s return to a single host, after foregoing any host between 2019 and 2021 and having three hosts for 2022.
Kimmel reflects on 2017′s “envelopegate”
Back in 2017 when Kimmel first hosted the award show, the wrong winner was announced for Best Picture, resulting in an awkward correction when the ‘La La Land’ cast took to the stage with producer Jordan Horowitz announcing the mistake.
“No. There’s been a mistake,” he said. “Moonlight, you guys won best picture …This is not a joke. Moonlight has won best picture.”
“In some ways, it feels like an episode of a TV show I watched and then put out of my head,” Kimmel told People.
He continued, “It was a very intense and confusing end to what was otherwise a pretty great night.”
The incident has since been dubbed “envelopegate”, when it was revealed that Price Waterhouse Cooper’s accountant Brian Cullinan was the one who mixed up the envelopes for Best Picture and Best Actress in a Leading Role.
Kimmel hopes “slapgate” becomes a learning experience
Still, for Kimmel, the moment wasn’t nearly as shocking as when Will Smith got up on stage to slap Chris Rock on live television after Rock had been making jokes about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith’s alopecia.
“It’s still shocking that that happened,” Kimmel said, who was watching the award show from home.
“To see something like that happen outside of like The Maury Povich Show is shocking. And then for it to happen on the Oscars magnifies it by about a million times.”
He continued, “I think it’s something that everybody regrets and that we will move past. One day it will be looked at in the same way as that guy running onstage naked is looked at: a weird moment that we all talked about and we hopefully learn from.”
“I mean, to be slapped in the face and to stay that cool is something that Chris should be proud of,” Kimmel said of the comedian.
“Chris’s grandchildren, I hope, will still be proud of that when he’s dead and gone.”