It has been noted that Sean Penn is questioning the response of popular actor Will Smith after the controversial slapping incident with Chris Rock at the Oscars.
Speaking with Variety, Penn called out Smith over the moment he walked onstage at the Academy Awards in March 2022 and slapped Rock. Smith went on to win Best Actor that night for King Richard, delivering an emotional speech. Following the show, Smith attended afterparties celebrating the win.
“I don’t know Will Smith. I met him once. He seemed very nice when I met him. He was so f—ing good in King Richard,” Penn prefaced his comments to Variety.
He continued, “So why the f— did you just spit on yourself and everybody else with this stupid f—ing thing? Why did I go to f—ing jail for what you just did? And you’re still sitting there? Why are you guys standing and applauding his worst moment as a person?”
When he was 26 years old in 1987, Penn was sentenced to 60 days in county jail after punching and spitting on an extra on the set of the movie Colors, the Los Angeles Times reported at the time. He served 33 days of the sentence.
It is noted that the actor has had multiple other instances of being charged in altercations, including in 2010 when he was sentenced to three years of probation and 300 hours of community service after attacking a photographer, per the LA Times.
Smith has since apologized for his Oscars outburst and resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which banned him from attending its events for 10 years.
He said in a video message last year, “My behavior was unacceptable,” and added that he is “trying to be remorseful without being ashamed of myself.”
“I’m human. I made a mistake and I’m trying not to think of myself as a piece of s—,” said Smith at the time.
Will Packer, the producer of the 2022 Oscars, previously revealed in a Good Morning America interview that police officers were prepared to arrest Smith at the event if Rock had wanted to press charges.
