Jim Carrey Calls Hollywood Spineless for Applauding Will Smith’s Win

Jim Carrey has some thoughts on Will Smith’s outburst at the Oscars event on Sunday night, and the actor called out the crowd’s response to be “spineless.”

In case you missed it, Smith went up to host Chris Rock on stage and slapped him across the face for making a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s medical condition, alopecia. Smith went on to shout at Rock, “Keep my wife’s name out of your f**king mouth!”

Rock managed to play it off and moved on to the next segment. Later, when Smith won the award for Best Actor, he received a standing ovation and delivered a heartfelt speech.

Referring to how the crowd reacted to the win, Carrey commented on it while talking to CBS Mornings’ Gayle King,

I was sickened. I was sickened by the standing ovation. I felt like Hollywood is just spineless, en masse. It really felt like, ‘Oh, this is a really clear indication that we’re not the cool club anymore.’

In a lengthy apology to Rock, Smith later admitted to being “out of line” and “wrong” and reasoned that he reacted emotionally instead of rationally, saying jokes about Jada’s medical condition were “too much to bear.”

Rock chose not to press assault charges against the actor, to which Carrey commented that he would’ve sued Will for $200 million if it was him.

If you wanna yell from the audience and disapprove or show disapproval or say something on Twitter or whatever—you do not have the right to walk up onstage and smack somebody in the face because they said words.

Carrey further added that he meant well and wished Smith the best with whatever he was going through,

[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.

According to PEOPLE, an insider source stated that the Oscars organizers at one point seriously considered having Smith removed from his seat during the ceremony after the incident.

Basically, there were just minutes to first figure out if it was a stunt and then try and get people on the same page—including the producers, ABC, the Academy, reps who were not all in the same place or all looking at their phones in real-time, and even to see if Chris wanted to press charges… having Will removed was definitely discussed seriously.

Several other celebrities have talked about Smith’s actions and how it was wrong to physically assault someone, no matter how much you dislike what they say.