Oscars host Wanda Sykes isn’t happy about that Will Smith Oscar slap either. After her co-host Amy Schumer took to Instagram to shame Smith for his “disturbing” actions on Sunday, Sykes sat down with Ellen DeGeneres to chastise the Best Actor winner for stealing her night.
“I just was like, ‘Is this really happening?’” Sykes recalled of the moment she found out about Smith smacking Chris Rock onstage. “I just felt so awful for my friend Chris. It was sickening. It was absolutely sickening. I physically felt ill. I’m still a little traumatized by it.”
Though she was not at the Oscars on Sunday, DeGeneres felt the need to chime in and say that she, too, felt traumatized by the whole affair. Unfazed by that off-hand remark, Sykes continued to bash Smith, saying it was wrong for the Oscars to let the actor stay at the ceremony after wreaking such havoc.
“For them to let him stay in that room and enjoy the rest of the show and accept his award, I was like, how gross is this?” Sykes said. “It was just the wrong message. You assault somebody, you get escorted out the building. That’s it. For them to let him continue, I thought it was gross.”
Sykes even had her own bit planned for Smith’s big Best Actor win. Expecting him to be ejected from the theater before his presumed victory, the host was ready to waltz onstage and proclaim, “Unfortunately, Will couldn’t be here tonight.”
The comedian continued by telling DeGeneres that she believes she and her co-hosts, Schumer and Regina Hall, deserve an apology from Smith.
“I know he apologized to Chris, but you know, we were the hosts. This is our house, we’re inviting you in, we’re hosts, we’re going to take care of y’all tonight, make sure you have a good time,” she said. “No one has apologized to us, and we worked really hard to put the show together.”
But you know who has apologized to her? Chris Rock. Sykes ran into him at an afterparty and recalled, “Soon as I walked up to him, the first thing he said was, ‘I am so sorry,’” Sykes revealed. “I’m like, ‘Why are you apologizing?’ He’s like, ‘It was supposed to be your night.’” (Smith has since apologized to Rock for the slap.)
“Chris is a sweet guy,” DeGeneres agreed. Sure, but has he asked forgiveness from Jada Pinkett Smith for the alopecia joke yet? Maybe that apology should take higher priority.
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