Will Smith has released a statement stating he has resigned from the Academy.
“I have directly responded to the Academy’s disciplinary hearing notice, and I will fully accept any and all consequences for my conduct. My actions at the 94th Academy Awards presentation were shocking, painful, and inexcusable. The list of those I have hurt is long and includes Chris, his family, many of my dear friends and loved ones, all those in attendance, and global audiences at home. I betrayed the trust of the Academy. I deprived other nominees and winners of their opportunity to celebrate and be celebrated for their extraordinary work. I am heartbroken. I want to put the focus back on those who deserve attention for their achievements and allow the Academy to get back to the incredible work it does to support creativity and artistry in film. So, I am resigning from membership in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and will accept any further consequences the Board deems appropriate. Change takes time and I am committed to doing the work to ensure that I never again allow violence to overtake reason.”
In response the Academy has responded by saying in a statement Friday that the organization has received and accepted Smith’s “immediate resignation.” Also, “We will continue to move forward with our disciplinary proceedings against Mr. Smith for violations of the Academy’s Standards of Conduct, in advance of our next scheduled board meeting on April 18.”
So what are your thoughts. It sounds like “YOU CAN”T FIRE ME I QUIT.” to me. Also can this please be the end of the breaking news? Aren’t there other things to talk about?
Also the Academy is denying some of the things Will Packer said in his interview this morning. I believe Will Packer.
I think he did the best thing to put this whole situation out of the news. Maybe he did the “I quit” thing or realized that Chris Rock looks like the better man and decided to act accordingly. Hopefully, this is done. Geez! Even the horribly sad Bruce Willis’ news was overshadowed by Will Smith’s disgusting behavior.
I hope we can stop talking about it now.
What a pussy move! He knew at best he would get a suspension from the Academy and at worst, expulsion. He couldn’t even act like a man and take the punishment meted out. Jerk!
Agree, he wanted to “quit before he was fired.” Let’s end this!
PS…..I hope to catch up on Killing Eve this weekend, haven’t read the recaps yet. I wanted to wait until I watched the episodes. Thanks for recapping! Happy Friday.
I’m doing the same with Killing Eve this weekend.
This isn’t a case of him quitting before he is fired. Him quitting means he will no longer be allowed to vote during the awards season. So, it’s really not a mea culpa.
It also means he can’t be nomiminated.
Not sure about that. No vote, but you can be nominated.
I just double checked he can be nominated. You are correct. I was reading the other day about. I was reading the other day about some movie he has coming out soon that is already getting buzz and they said that if the Academy suspends him for a year he would not be eligible to be nominated. /shrugs. Maybe that is the difference if you quit.
Yes exactly! He can still be nominated an win another academy award. So he still hasn’t had any real consequences. Since he resigned There is no real action the academy can take. Of course they let people like Harvey Weinstein and Roman Polanski keep their Oscars. And they did far worse than Will Smith.
Exactly.
You don’t have to be a member of the Academy to be nominated. Him quitting might gain him goodwill in the future with the Academy though.
Cheers for that Mary! Thank you!
Side note, I never had anyone famous respond to me, thank you Tamara. Not to say it isn’t cool that Mary responded to me, it is. I’ll shut up now…Thank you!
I want whatever you’re having,E.
Speaking of. I had sparkling water and added cranberry juice over ice. So good!
LOL I’m not famous. I’m just an old fat lady who has anxiety when she has to leave the house. Nothing to see here.
Yous Famous girl!
Love ya😘
You are WAAAAAAY more than that.
I’m going to respond to you too, because you sound like a peach. I remember the first time Tamra responded to me, I was excited too! LoL. Cheers!
I am sticking with my original theory that Will is a victim of domestic abuse. It’s not excuse but I definitely think Jada is, at a minimum, culpable.
OMG! Agree with this 💯 !
Did you see her awkward Red Table Talk with him when she humiliated him talking about her “entanglement’. He was crying! It was so uncomfortable and at the time I thought that poor guy was being abused by his wife.
He laughed at the joke at first. Saw her face and snapped.
She has some weird control over him.
He should get out of that relationship.
I do think he was totally wrong to hit Chris Rock and deserves any and all the punishment he receives.
Too little, too late.
So true!
👍😘
well, you know, he read the room the next day, and realized how badly he fucked up.
Now Im annoyed with the Academy. They keep saying but we spoke to Chris Rock and he didnt want Smith charged. Its nothing to do with that. It was not up to Chris Rock to have to make that decision at that immediate moment They should have spoken to the police, said its our function, he is our guest and he was just violent we want him OUT. Nothing to do with Chris or assault charges.
I agree with you, Dee. Chris had too much emotional weight to deal with already. It’s not cool for the Academy to imply that decision was solely his. He made the decision in that moment that HE didn’t want to press charges for the bodily harm inflicted on him personally. That is completely different from the Academy implementing consequences. Yet they’re trying to place it on his shoulders.
My prediction is he resigns….. goes to rehab for whatever…..anger management, substance abuse, PTSD from childhood, something, gets readmitted in time for the next film he’s nominated for.
I don’t get the “he was protecting his wife” line. She wasn’t in physical danger from a throw away one liner. I mean every comedy show on earth the person on stage makes cracks about the audience. Every Oscar’s host makes jokes about the audiences.
I truly don’t believe Chris knew it was a medical issue, and I haven’t heard Jada ever mention that either. But I knew about lots of stuff with their kids, their open marriage, etc. A better way to handle it would have been to later on say something to Chris. I think he would have been like “aww man, I didn’t know, I’m so sorry”. Instead now people are talking about this crap a week afterward when there is an actual war going on with people dying.
Just my $.02
And I agree TT *is* famous…..
I feel sorry for him. Obviously, he never had a male mentor to learn to handle life’s situations appropriately.
I thought it was interesting that Denzel warned Will after the slap about how the devil can show up in those minutes to steal them from you…. but that was no devil, that was PURE self-sabatoge. Will did it to himself.
Fwiw, I read Will has a history of abuse in his family, his Dad beat the crap out of the Mother growing up and apparently Will never got over the fact he couldn’t protect her/defend her etc. It gives it the event an interesting context…Let’s face it, he’s also incredibly pussy whipped by Jada.
He and Jada deserve each other.
I really can’t stand to do another post on this but the word is that all of the MANY MANY projects Will Smith was working on have either been cancelled entirely or put on hold.
That was a very expensive slap.
I just finished reading about the same thing. Wow.
That seems appropriate at the very least. I’m waiting until the April 18 meeting to pay anymore attention to this.
Did it affect their kid’s projects too? Would think he ruined temporarily all that.
I hope the Academy suspends him for at least a year. Or whatever it does when a person resigns. I think the Academy can apply whatever sanctions it chooses that follow the bylaws. Just because he resigned doesn’t mean he can’t get sanctions. Such as being ineligible to be nominated and no one’s plus one next year, or for however long.
How to destroy your career in 20 seconds? Ask Will Smith…..he will teach you how. Never seen someone self-implode in 20 seconds like this.
Will Smith has a Netflix film and a movie for Sony put on hold, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Netflix was in the process of finding a new director for “Fast and Loose,” after David Leitch withdrew from the project ahead of the Academy Awards, THR said. Smith was to play a crime boss with a memory problem.
Sony is also putting the brakes on “Bad Boys 4,” which had been gearing up ahead of the awards show. The slave drama “Emancipation,” made for Apple+, has already been completed, the outlet reported.
This is welcome news. These are the consequences when you assault someone. You don’t get rewarded for it. I hope L.A.P.D. lays criminal charges.
The Academy is going to have to do something serious or it’s inviting future on air brawls. Haven’t I read the some disgraced athletes have a * on their win?