Serena Williams will never forget the 2022 Academy Awards for various reasons. “King Richards,” a movie about the Williams sisters’ tennis lives, won multiple Oscar nominations. However, the ceremony also witnessed one of the most dramatic incidents in the history of the glamorous event – Will Smith slapping the host, Chris Rock.
At one point during the ceremony, Rock made a light-hearted joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head. Smith wasn’t amused by the jabs towards his wife and responded with a slap. Smith, who would go on to win the Best Actor award for his role in the biopic, received a lot of backlash for resorting to violence.
However, the WTA legend has often defended the actor’s actions. She reiterated her words, recalling some forgettable public encounters of her own to empathize with Smith.
“Oh yeah, you know, I listen. I have my faults and I have had some public moments where they weren’t my finest moments and so I just understand that sometimes you don’t make your best decisions. So yeah, I have,” Williams told Andrew Ross Sorkin from the New York Times.
The 23-time Grand Slam winner revealed that she missed the slap because she was backstage. The entire incident had calmed down by the time she returned to her seat.
“I was actually backstage and I thought ‘oh, my god, I got to get back and see what is happening here’ and so I ran back to my seat as fast as I could to you know, get the juicy details. I was like ‘wait, how did I miss this?’,” Williams concluded.
Congratulations to Will Smith for winning @TheAcademy Award for Best Actor for his landmark performance in #KingRichard. pic.twitter.com/9b6rLeiASR
— King Richard Film (@KingRichardFilm) March 28, 2022
The 94th Academy Awards will always be remembered for this infamous reason. However, Serena, who was an executive producer of the biopic, will take pride in the fact that the movie won one Oscar and received five other nominations, including “Best Picture.”
As for Will Smith, this film will always be special since he won his first Oscar for his role as Richard Williams. During his acceptance speech, Smith thanked the Williams family for choosing him.
“I wanna be a vessel for love, I wanna say thank you to Venus and Serena and the entire Williams family for entrusting me with your story. I wanna be an ambassador for that kind of love and care and concern,” Smith said.
