In his first late-night show appearance since the Oscars, Smith spoke with The Daily Show host Trevor Noah about the incident, in which he slapped Rock on stage at the ceremony after the comedian joked about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith, and her shaved head. Pinkett Smith suffers from hair loss due to alopecia.
“It was a mess,” Smith said earlier this week. “I don’t want to go too far into it to give people more to misunderstand.” He went on to say that he had been “going through something,” but that it “doesn’t justify my behavior at all.”
On Wednesday, Sky News Australia contributor Megyn Kelly spoke with host Paul Murray about Smith’s recent comments, slamming him for the Oscars incident.
“Let’s be honest. If Will Smith were white and had assaulted Chris Rock, a black man at the Oscars, he would never work again a day in his life,” said Kelly. “He gets a pass because of his skin color and because he’s a huge star and Hollywood celebrates that and values that above all else.”
“They have to act like they’re mad over this one incident because they realize that the general population doesn’t appreciate it, but they’re not really mad. Will Smith is gonna get a total pass and all the time remind us about how he’s the real victim,” she added.
Earlier in the conversation, Kelly slammed Hollywood culture in reference to Smith.
“These Hollywood celebrities who think they’re something, they’re all that and a biscuit. They are drunk on their own wine. And why? Why? Because they can memorize lines and repeat them in a way that’s persuasive,” she said.
“Why am I supposed to celebrate you like you’re the second coming? Because you can do that. Well, I don’t. Most people don’t. So he gets up there, behaves outrageously at the most lavish, exciting, in the Hollywood industry, event of the year, and now his apology tour,” she added.
Kelly offered an example of the apology she wanted to hear from Smith: “‘I did something really stupid and cruel and I’m deeply apologetic for it. I’m sorry. That’s all I can tell you. I hope I earn your forgiveness.’ Period! You know what he’s doing? ‘Poor me.’ He literally went on Trevor Noah, this failing late-night comedian show, and said, ‘Hurt people, hurt people.’”
On Noah’s show, Smith stated while discussing the incident, “We just gotta be nice to each other, man. It’s hard. I guess the thing that was most painful for me, is I took my heart and made it hard for other people. I understood the idea when they say hurt people hurt people.”
Kelly spoke out about the Oscars incident earlier this year, stating back in March that the slap, and later, Smith’s acceptance speech after winning best actor, was akin to Meghan Markle’s “whining and crying about the alleged racists she wouldn’t name in the royal family and about how hard it is to be a princess and everything… no one cares, they have their own problems to deal with.”
Newsweek reached out to representatives for Smith and Kelly for additional comment.
Update 11/30/22 2:05 p.m. ET: This article was updated with more information.
