Wanda Sykes is going to be on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on April 7th, but she taped her appearance yesterday. The first question Ellen asked her was about the slap heard around the world at the Oscars.
Sykes told the host she was preparing to do a costume change when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock, so she didn’t see it happen. However, everyone backstage was in shock and could not believe what had just transpired, including the Oscars host.
Sykes said when she was shown what happened, she said she “just felt so awful for my friend Chris. And it was sickening, absolutely sickening. I physically felt ill, and I’m still a little traumatized by it.”
She was also sickened by the fact that the Academy let Smith stay at the Oscars and accept his award for Best Actor. She thought, “how gross is this. This is the wrong message.”
Had AMPAS made the correct decision to kick him out, Sykes would’ve joked, “Will couldn’t be here tonight…”
Then Sykes added that she thinks Smith owes her, Amy Schumer, and Regina Hall an apology because the three of them “worked really hard to put that show together.” And with in less than one minute, he destroyed everything that they did that night.
While Smith did not apologize to her, Rock did. Sykes says that she saw Rock at a party, and “the first thing he said was, ‘I’m so sorry.’ I am like, ‘Why are you apologizing?’ He’s like, ‘It was supposed to be your night. You, and Amy and Regina, y’all were doing such a great job; I’m so sorry this is now going to be about this.’ Because that’s who Chris is.”
Syke’s cohost Schumer also weighed in with, “Still triggered and traumatized. I love my friend @chrisrock and believe he handled it like a pro. Stayed up there and gave an Oscar to his friend @questlove and the whole thing was so disturbing. So much pain in @willsmith anyway I’m still in shock and stunned and sad. Im proud of myself and my cohosts. But yeah. Waiting for this sickening feeling to go away from what we all witnessed.”
When Smith comes out of hiding, he is going to need to do a lot of apologizing, along with soul searching. I hope he is doing the latter because he has rightfully burned a lot of bridges.
