In the days since Will Smith and Chris Rock’s on-stage altercation at the 94th Academy Awards earlier this week, a variety of celebrities have weighed in on the matter, with cohost of the event Amy Schumer taking to Instagram to share that she is still “triggered” and “traumatized” following the event. Given how surprising the incident was to everyone involved, there was mass confusion from everyone officially tied to the event on how to best handle the ceremony following, with various parties involved having since expressed how they wished things had been handled differently. When Schumer returned to the stage after Smith had slapped Rock, she commented, “Did I miss anything? There’s like a different vibe in here.” In an Instagram post, she shared more of her genuine thoughts on the incident.
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“I think we can all agree that the best way to unpack what happened is to stream my series [Life and Beth] and see me on tour this fall,” Schumer joked in her post. She then opened up, “But for real. Still triggered and traumatized. I love my friend [Chris Rock] and believe he handled it like a pro. Stayed up there and gave an Oscar to his friend [Questlove] and the whole thing was so disturbing. So much pain in [Will Smith]. Anyway, I’m still in shock and stunned and sad. I’m proud of myself and my cohosts. But yeah. Waiting for this sickening feeling to go away from what we all witnessed.”
The event occurred when Rock joked that Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith, who suffers from hair loss as the result of alopecia, should star in G.I. Jane 2, given her newly shaved head. While Smith initially appeared to laugh off the comments, cameras caught Jada’s clear disdain and disappointment in the joke, seemingly triggering Smith and inspiring him to walk on stage to confront Rock.
Celebrities and all of social media have been weighing in on the issue, some saying Rock was in the wrong for making light of a medical condition after also having made disparaging jokes about Pinkett Smith at the Oscars in 2016, while others think Smith is solely to blame for resorting to any amount of violence, even to a minimal degree, to settle the issue. Others are more disappointed that, following a clearly tense encounter between the two celebrities, the ceremony moved forward without any recourse, which included Smith winning the Oscar for Best Actor shortly after the conflict.
While both Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith have shared posts on social media in the wake of the altercation, Rock has yet to address the incident publicly. The Academy has claimed they have opened up an investigation into how best to handle the exchange.