Academy leaders meet Will Smith before Oscar emergency board meeting

The leaders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have met with Hollywood star Will Smith to discuss the ongoing Oscar slap incident, before the emergency board meeting.

As per the new outlet, the leaders met with Smith on Tuesday to discuss his attack on Chris Rock during the live telecast of the 2022 Oscars ceremony on Sunday. The outlet was informed that Academy President David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson had a conversation with the 53-year-old actor on Zoom about the fallout from the assault during Sunday’s Oscars telecast.

“The talk lasted for roughly 30 minutes,” according to what the source added. Smith apologized again to Rubin and Hudson for his action during their ‘brief’ conversation and also expressed his awareness that there would be consequences and tried to explain why he snapped when Rock made a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair, who has alopecia.

Read more: ‘Still processing slap by Will Smith’: Chris Rock on Oscar incident

Following that meeting, the Academy announced that Smith had violated the group’s code of conduct and faced “suspension, expulsion, or other sanctions.” The Academy also revealed that Smith was asked to leave the ceremony following the incident, but he refused.

Smith-Rock fiasco

For those unversed with the entire ordeal, it occurred after Chris Rock, the award show presenter, started poking fun at Will Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett, and her alopecia. At the time, he branded her GI Jane 2, in response to her baldhead, and simultaneously incited an enraged reaction by the actor who could be heard saying, on live television, “Keep my wife’s name out of your [expletive] mouth”.