Tyler Perry is making his position on the Will Smith–Chris Rock slapping event really clear.
After that stunning 2022 Oscars minute, Perry was photographed speaking with Smith and putting his hand on his shoulder. And throughout a June 13 talk with Gayle King at New York’s Tribeca Festival, the director clarified he wasn’t taking anybody’s side. As he put it, per Deadline, “There is a difference between comforting and deescalating.”
Indeed, Perry noted he likewise wished to see if Rock was okay. “I was there, close up,” he remembered, per the outlet. “I left early to go and check on Chris because it was wrong in no uncertain terms, and I made sure I said that to Will.”
Looking back at that minute, Perry stated Smith, who won the Best Actor in a Leading Role distinction for his function in King Richard that night, “was devastated.”
“He couldn’t believe what happened,” the Madea star supposedly included. “He couldn’t believe he did it. And I’m looking at this man in his eyes going, ‘What are you doing?’ This is your night….And to get all this way to winning an Oscar. It was one of the crowning moments of his career that he wanted so desperately.”
