Celebs Divided About Will Smith Slapping Chris Rock At The Oscars: Reactions From Jaden Smith, Nicki Minaj, & MORE

Will Smith and Chris Rock certainly delivered a very memorable Oscars moment on Sunday night.

As we’ve been reporting, Jada Pinkett Smith‘s husband stood up for her in a very shocking — and violent — way during the live telecast, after the comedian joked about her hair loss on stage. And with the slap seen ’round the world, the A-list men catapulted the television event into the Twitter stratosphere, with thousands of tweets reacting to the surprising scene.

Of course, it wasn’t just the viewers at home who had a take on the shocking award show smack. In fact, celebrities came out of the woodwork to comment on the scene, too, with dozens taking to Twitter themselves in the aftermath of it all.

Most notably, Will’s son Jaden Smith stepped up with a show of support for his dad. After Will won Best Actor later in the evening for his role in King Richard, Jaden took to the social media outlet to share his take:

And That’s How We Do It

— Jaden (@jaden) March 28, 2022

Obviously, while that tweet was posted after Will’s award acceptance speech later in the night, it’s vague enough that it could be specifically about the slap. E! News reports Jaden also wrote “My Dads Speech Made Me Cry,” in a separate tweet referencing Will’s comments after being awarded the Oscar. That second message appears to have since been deleted.

Regardless, beyond the Fresh Prince alum’s publicly supportive family, the rest of the A-list reaction to the on-stage slap was decidedly more mixed.

Trevor Noah said what pretty much all of us were thinking in the moment, when he relayed his surprise at the moment evidently being very much real and unplanned:

Wtaf????? That wasn’t scripted????? ????????????????????????????????

— Trevor Noah (@Trevornoah) March 28, 2022

We felt the same way…

Nicki Minaj was up early on Monday morning reacting to the entire situation, and she posted a series of tweets with her thoughts on the matter:

“I love Chris Rock. I don’t think he would’ve made that joke had he known what Jada recently shared — but between him & the whole team @ the #Oscars you mean to tell me not ONE of y’all heard this woman just share this heartbreaking story?”

Nicki continued from there:

“And this is such an AMAZING – EYE OPENING example of it… The husband gets a front row seat to his wife’s pain… he’s the 1 consoling her… drying her tears behind closed doors when those cameras go off. Social media has made ppl feel that these ‘husbands’ won’t ever run into them in real life.”

And the Anaconda rapper concluded:

“You just got to witness in real time what happens in a man’s soul when he looks over to the woman he loves & sees her holding back tears from a ‘little joke’ at her expense. This is what any & every real man feels in that instant. while y’all seeing the joke he’s seeing her pain. Imagine what it must feel like to be losing your hair to the point where you have to shave it bald. You think that’s easy to deal with for anyone? You don’t think she’s cried about that many times? 2022 y’all gon have to see these men about those jokes you made about their wives.”

Whoa!

Cardi B tweeted the comment Will made during his acceptance speech, where the Independence Day alum explained what Denzel Washington had apparently told him while trying to deescalate the situation in the moments after slapping Rock on stage:

At your highest moment …be careful that’s when the devil tries to come for you ????????

— Cardi B (@iamcardib) March 28, 2022

Maria Shriver commented skeptically on Will’s acceptance speech in the hours after the slap, writing this in a two-part tweet about the matter (below):

We should never get to a place where we sit and watch a movie star hit someone on global television then, moments later, get a standing ovation while talking about love. #WillSmith #Oscars

— Maria Shriver (@mariashriver) March 28, 2022

Wow. She’s not wrong! The dichotomy of Will’s two on-camera actions on Sunday night is certainly a head-scratcher.

One Tree Hill alum Sophia Bush further noted the problematic nature of the on-camera violence, while also adding her take on Rock’s “punching down” at Jada regarding her alopecia and hair loss:

Violence isn’t ok. Assault is never the answer. Also? This is the 2nd time that Chris has made fun of Jada on the #Oscars stage, & tonight he went after her alopecia. Punching down at someone’s auto-immune disease is wrong. Doing so on purpose is cruel. They both need a breather.

— Sophia Bush (@SophiaBush) March 28, 2022

Not everyone was so conflicted about Will’s actions, though.

Tiffany Haddish spoke to People at the Governors Ball following the ceremony, and very strongly praised the 53-year-old actor for standing up for his wife. The 42-year-old comedian, who starred in Girls Trip back in 2017 alongside Jada, explained her reasoning by saying (below):

“When I saw a Black man stand up for his wife. That meant so much to me. As a woman, who has been unprotected, for someone to say, ‘Keep my wife’s name out your mouth, leave my wife alone,’ that’s what your husband is supposed to do, right? Protect you. And that meant the world to me. And maybe the world might not like how it went down, but for me, it was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen because it made me believe that there are still men out there that love and care about their women, their wives.”

And Haddish added more:

“Would you do that for your wife? Would you say, ‘Keep my wife’s name out your mother f**king…’ Like, yes! Yes! Why would [Chris] do that? He didn’t even run the joke by [Jada], but she was hurt though. If she wouldn’t have been hurt, [Will] probably wouldn’t have said nothing. But you could see she was clearly… And they exploited it. They exploited her, so ‘I have to do something’… He protected his wife.”

Wowwww!

At the Vanity Fair party after the show, Hamilton star Leslie Odom Jr. weighed in on the matter, too, telling reporters that the entire situation centered on the vulnerability of both men involved:

“This business can sometimes feel like walking around with your skin ripped off, you know? It’s a very vulnerable thing. And so I think we saw two artists with their hearts open. It’s a vulnerable moment, sometimes it’s messy but it’s always beautiful when it’s the truth.”

Interesting take… A former Oscars host himself, Jimmy Kimmel tried to play peacemaker as best he could via Twitter, writing this in the aftermath of the shocker:

I know the big story is the slap, but congratulations to @amyschumer @iamwandasykes & Regina Hall who were very funny – I hope that isn't overshadowed by the unpleasantness #Oscars

— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) March 28, 2022

Filmmaker Judd Apatow posted a series of tweets immediately in response to the shocking on-screen act. They included this one (below), that immediately went viral for the “he could have killed him” take, generating lots of Twitter reaction commentary of its own:

“[Will] could have killed him. That’s pure out of control rage and violence. They’ve heard a million jokes about them in the last three decades. They are not freshmen in the world of Hollywood and comedy. He lost his mind.”

Per Us Weekly, Apatow also added:

“I’m glad Chris is ok. Will learned nothing training for Ali. Will Smith’s punches are as soft as his raps.”

Yikes! Checking the director’s account later, it appears as though Apatow deleted all of his tweets about the slap. Something tells us there might be a lot of that today…

Nevertheless, Saturday Night Live and Insecure writer Natasha Rothwell made a great point about how this compares to another recent Oscars gaffe: