Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Oscars 2022: Will Smith wins Best Actor after dramatic Chris Rock confrontation

Actor was in tears as he addressed the incident in his acceptance speech

Louis Chilton
Monday 28 March 2022 04:42 BST
Comments
Will Smith punches Chris Rock at the Oscars

Your support helps us to tell the story

This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.

The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.

Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.

Will Smith has won Best Actor at the Oscars 2022, after hitting presenter Chris Rock earlier in the ceremony.

The actor took home the award for his performance in the biopic King Richard, in which he played Richard Williams, father of tennis champions Serena and Venus Williams.

In a shocking incident that dominated discussion around the event, Smith walked on stage and appeared to strike Rock after the comedian made a joke about his wife, the actor Jada Pinkett Smith.

Smith was then heard yelling: “Keep my wife’s name out your f***ing mouth.”

In an emotional speech after his Oscar win, Smith said: “Richard Williams was a fierce defender of his family.”

He continued: “I’m being called on in my life to love people and to protect people and to be a river to my people. I know, to do what we do, we’ve gotta be able to take abuse. You’ve gotta be able to have people talk crazy about you. In this business, you’ve gotta be able to have people disrespecting you.

Dyring his speech, the actor also revealed what Washington said to him directly after he hit Rock.

Up against Smith in the category were Javier Bardem in Being the Ricardos, Benedict Cumberbatch for The Power of the Dog, Andrew Garfield inTick, Tick… Boom! and Denzel Washington in The Tragedy of Macbeth.

You can follow along with our Oscars 2022 live blog here.

Click here for a list of the winners.

The I Am Legend star had been the heavy favourite to take home the prize.

The win represents Smith’s first victory at the Academy Awards, having been nominated twice previously for Ali and The Pursuit of Happiness.

Demi Singleton, Saniyya Sidney and Will Smith in ‘King Richard'
Demi Singleton, Saniyya Sidney and Will Smith in ‘King Richard' (Warner Bros)

In her four-star review of King Richard for The Independent, Clarisse Loughrey wrote: “For all [the] transformation (there’s even a Louisiana accent in play), what actually makes Smith such a ferocious asset to King Richard is the one thing that couldn’t be scrubbed out.”

She continued: “He is a true movie star in an age where there are diminishingly few – and with that comes a certain sense of command, a largeness to his presence that reaches beyond the confines of the film itself.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in