The Academy won’t nominate Will Smith for another Academy Award so soon after his slap incident, right? With the announcement that Apple TV+ will release Emancipation in time to be considered for next year’s Oscars, hopefully the Academy doesn’t bite on the bait and nominate Will Smith for Best Actor.
Even if Will Smith completely transforms himself as “Whipped Peter” and gives us the greatest acting performance we have ever seen in the 100 years or so of motion picture history, he should not be even considered for Best Actor, let alone nominated for it.
What kind of statement would the Academy of Motion Picture be putting out to the world if they rewarded Will Smith with another Best Actor nomination less than 1-year after the ‘Men in Black’ actor assaulted Chris Rock live on air.
Will Smith violated every rule and social norm associated with the Oscars by aggressively storming the presenting stage, absolutely cracking the presenter off the side of the face with a vicious slap, and then launch a verbal tirade against said presenter when he sat back in his seat.
Sure, it made for great television (which, secretly, the Academy probably loved as the ratings of the Oscars shot up nearly 50% last year) and created some high stakes in the Best Actor category, but it most certainly was not worthy of reward.
Will Smith needed to be punished for his actions, which he was through his ‘resignation’ (he was going to be expelled if he didn’t) from the Academy and a ten-year ban from attending Academy-sponsored events, such as the Oscars.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind if he gets nominated for an Academy Award in other categories, such as a producer for Best Picture, as he served as one of many producers on Emancipation.
It was a collection of all of these producers’ hard work, along with the hard work of the on-screen and off-screen crew members, to make this film and it would be very unfair to Smith’s collogues if they couldn’t get nominated because they simply worked with him.
Yet, in regard to the individual Best Actor award, Will Smith has not been in Academy ‘detention’ (so to speak) for long enough to justify a nomination. I’m sure Smith has put in a great performance as the famous escaped slave “Whipped Peter”, but the real-life actor’s actions must take away from his on-screen characters opportunity for Oscar glory.
In all honesty, I feel really bad for everyone involved in the ‘Slap Incident’ (well, mostly everyone but that’s another story), but it happened, and Will Smith needed to answer for it. And not getting nominated for an academy award this time round is part of that penance.
Still, I do hope that the movie is good, and Smith put in a good performance as the story of “Whipped Pete” must be a very fascinating, distressing, and cautionary tale about the sins, struggles, and achievements of our 1860’s American forbearers.
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