Four years after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock on live television at the 2022 Academy Awards — an act that earned him a 10-year ban from Academy events — Rock told The New York Times in October 2026 that he has finally moved on.
The incident remains the most shocking unscripted moment in Oscars history. On March 27, 2022, at the 94th Academy Awards, Rock was presenting Best Documentary when he made an off-the-cuff joke comparing Jada Pinkett Smith's shaved head — she had spoken openly about her alopecia — to Demi Moore's look in 'G.I. Jane.' Smith, initially laughing, then strode onto the stage and struck Rock across the face before returning to his seat and shouting, twice, for Rock to keep his wife's name out of his mouth. The Dolby Theatre fell silent; minutes later, Smith won Best Actor for 'King Richard' and used his acceptance speech to apologize to the Academy, though not to Rock.
The fallout was swift and severe. Rock declined to press charges, but the Academy condemned the assault, and Smith resigned from the organization days later. On April 8, 2022, the Academy's board banned Smith from attending any Academy events, including the Oscars, for ten years — an unprecedented punishment for a sitting Best Actor winner, though he kept his statuette and remains eligible for future nominations.
Smith issued a public apology the next day, calling his behavior 'unacceptable' and 'inexcusable,' and later posted a video addressing the incident in depth. His career absorbed the blow unevenly: films were delayed and his public image cratered, though he has since returned to major releases. Rock, for his part, mostly let the moment speak for itself, working the slap into his 2023 Netflix special 'Selective Outrage' — where he joked that Smith practiced selective outrage — without granting the kind of tell-all interviews the press craved.
That changed on October 3, 2026, when interviewer David Marchese pressed Rock on whether the fiasco still affected him. 'I'm good, man. That was so long ago... I wish everyone well. I've moved on with my life,' Rock said, refusing to feed the cycle: 'I'm not going to get into clickbait things.' The Academy's ban runs until 2032, and Smith's eventual return to the Oscars stage — whether as presenter or nominee — will be one of the most scrutinized moments in the ceremony's history. Industry watchers continue to debate whether the slap permanently capped his leading-man career or merely interrupted it.