The 94th edition of the Oscars was completely overshadowed by a violent altercation between Best Actor winner Will Smith (53) and presenter Chris Rock (57). Smith punched Rock and swore at him in front of the whole room and the viewers at home. The Academy publicly disapproves of his actions.
I think this all sounds very familiar to you. It was all over the news and social media. That is why in this blog we are not going to talk about the incident, but about what happened to the reputation of Will Smith.
Will Smith is a very popular man with a lot of following. Known for his films, series, music, books and more. But will the incident change this? At first glance the damage seems to be limited, no companies or sponsors have 'cancelled' him yet. In this day and age, famous people are very quickly 'cancelled'. They lose millions of followers within a day and are instantly much less popular from a single snapshot. This does not seem to be the case with Will Smith. He also still has over 60 million Instagram followers today.
This probably has to do with the fact that many people are not very angry about his action, Chris Rock was making a joke about the illness of Will Smith's wife. That's why the reaction against Will is less violent than usual, because people understand Will his pain. Also, while receiving his Oscar, he explained why he was hurt and that family comes first. A lot of people disapprove but accept it.
On Instagram he posted a formal statement of following his poor behaviour. The statement acknowledged the wrongdoing and atone for the mistake. He also said that he is growing and learning from the situation. After the Oscar it is important for Will to be earnest, honest and forthcoming the next time he has a public appearance.
In conclusion, Will Smith is going to have a lot of problems regarding this accident, but his career is not over. What he did is wrong, but he was emotional because of the disease of his wife. That is why in a few months, everybody will have moved on.