Movie star Jim Carrey had harsh words for Will Smith and the “spineless” celebrities to gave him a standing ovation after he had slapped Chris Rock for a joke made at his wife’s expense.
Carrey made the comments during an interview Tuesday with Gayle King on CBS This Morning.
“I was sickened by the standing ovation. I felt like Hollywood is just spineless en masse, and it really felt like, oh this is a really clear indication that we aren’t the cool club anymore,” said Carrey.
Smith returned to his seat after assaulting Rock and later in the ceremony accepted the award for best actor while giving a tearful speech apologizing to the Academy, but not to the comedian he had slapped. The celebrity audience at the Oscars gave him a standing ovation.
Carrey went on to say that Smith should have been escorted out by security and arrested. He also opined that Rock should have sued Smith but that he didn’t want to deal with the hassle.
“I’d have announced this morning that I was suing Will for $200 million because that video is going to be there forever. It’s going to be ubiquitous. You know, that insult is gonna last a very long time,” he said.
Carrey criticized Smith for selfishly making the awards ceremony about himself and taking away from the hard work others had accomplished to be there.
“It came out of nowhere because Will has something going on inside him that’s 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 added.
“It casts a pall over everybody’s shining moment last night, you know?” Carrey concluded. “A lot of people worked really hard to get to that place and to have their moment in the sun and to get their award for the really hard work they did.”
Carrey himself has inspired controversy through politically-themed paintings he’s posted to his Twitter account, many of which offered acidic critiques of former President Donald Trump and his supporters.
The Academy released a statement condemning Smith’s actions on Tuesday while Smith offered an apology on his Instagram account to Rock and others for his behavior.
Here’s more about the Oscars slap:
The Academy launches a formal review into Will Smith’s actions at the Oscars
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