Before she presumably takes it to the Red Table, Jada Pinkett Smith has released her first statement after husband, Will Smith, slapped Chris Rock on the Oscars stage Sunday night.
“This is a season for healing and I’m here for it,” read a graphic shared by Pinkett Smith on Instagram Tuesday morning, with no accompanying caption.
The altercation at the ceremony took place when Rock, presenting the award for Best Documentary Feature, joked that Pinkett Smith could star in a “G.I. Jane” sequel due to her tightly buzzed haircut.
The “Red Table Talk” host has publicly discussed her long struggle with alopecia, which causes hair loss.
Smith, who would be awarded Best Actor later that evening, initially seemed to laugh off the joke, but then ran onto the stage and slapped Rock before quickly returning to his seat.
“Keep my wife’s name out your fucking mouth!” Smith yelled once he was seated.
The “King Richard” star has since issued a formal apology, writing in an Instagram post on Monday: “Violence in all of its forms is poisonous and destructive.”
“My behavior at last night’s Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable. Jokes at my expense are a part of the job, but a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally,” Smith wrote. “I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.”
Smith offered his apologies to the Academy, the Williams family ― both Serena and Venus Williams, whose father Smith portrayed in “King Richard,” were in attendance at the ceremony ― and “everyone watching around the world.”
“I deeply regret that my behavior has stained what has been an otherwise gorgeous journey for all of us,” he concluded. “I am a work in progress.”
Pinkett Smith has remained tight-lipped since the incident, apart from posting videos on social media of the emerald green Jean Paul Gaultier couture gown she wore on the red carpet.
Days before the Oscars ceremony, however, the “Matrix Resurrections” star talked about embracing her appearance in a TikTok video about the Crown Act, a piece of legislation recently passed in the House of Representatives that aims to ban hair-related discrimination.
“Being a Black woman and dealing with hair in Hollywood, especially in the era that I came up in ― having your hair look as European as possible was always the thing,” Pinkett Smith said in the video. “That was really challenging, you know, because I liked my hair out, wild and curly. But nobody wanted that. So I always had to do my hair in ways that didn’t feel natural to me because of trying to play the game.”
“So if I’m doing a cover, everybody ― ‘No, we want your hair straight and flowy,’” she went on. “It’s like, ‘All right, cool, but that’s not really what my hair likes to do.’ So I had to learn to get the courage to just go, ‘Nah, I’m not doing it,’ which is why I feel the freedom today. I don’t give two craps what people feel about this bald head of mine. Cause guess what? I love it.”
The Academy has launched a formal review into the altercation, saying that it “condemns the actions of Mr. Smith” at Sunday’s show, and that it will “explore further action and consequences” for the actor “in accordance with our Bylaws, Standards of Conduct and California law.”
Rock, meanwhile, has yet to speak out since the ceremony, but declined to file a police report over the incident.