NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Stratford Press

Editorial: In praise of the talented actor who used his hands, not words, to express himself

Ilona Hanne
By Ilona Hanne
News director Lower North Island communities·Stratford Press·
1 Apr, 2022 05:00 AM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Will Smith hits presenter and actor Chris Rock while Rock was presenting the award for Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars. Photo / AP

Will Smith hits presenter and actor Chris Rock while Rock was presenting the award for Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars. Photo / AP

Opinion:

Unless you have been living on a desert island for the past week, if I say let's talk about that slap, you will know exactly what I mean.

For the sake of the desert island dwellers amongst us, what I want to talk about in this column is the moment Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock live and on stage at this year's Academy Awards - the Oscars - after Chris Rock made a joke about Will Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.

Actually, no I don't.

I don't want to talk about the moment a grown, professional and supposedly intelligent man decided to use his fists as a way to deal with something he didn't like, any more than I want to talk about the fact a comedian - also a grown, professional and supposedly intelligent man- decided it was okay, and in fact funny, to mock a woman's appearance/medical condition.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Why not? Because all the time we are spending talking about a joke and a slap is time we aren't spending talking about other things.

We shouldn't be talking about the moment a talented actor used his hands instead of words to respond to a situation. We should be talking about the moment a talented actor used his hands to express his words when he (Troy Kotsur) received the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor - the first deaf male to get the golden statue in the history of the awards.

Troy Kotsur arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party with his Oscar. Photo / AP
Troy Kotsur arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party with his Oscar. Photo / AP

We shouldn't be discussing a joke about just one person. We should be discussing the fact Jada Pinkett Smith is just one of the 147 million people worldwide who have, or will develop, alopecia areata at some point in their life.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

We shouldn't be questioning whether it is okay for comedians to mock hair loss. We should be questioning why we aren't doing enough to remove the stigma of it.

We shouldn't be talking about how Will Smith has "excused" his behaviour with the line "love will make you do crazy things". We should be talking about how love is never an excuse for violence, a message domestic violence shelters and charities would love to get more airtime.

We shouldn't be critiquing the silence from the rest of the Hollywood elite present as they saw that unwanted physical interaction play out on stage. We should be critiquing the silence from the Hollywood elite over the decades of non-disclosure agreements, silencing so many women from speaking out about the unwanted physical interactions they experienced at the hands of famous actors, directors and other members of the inner circle.

We certainly shouldn't be spending hours upon hours, talk show upon talk show, column after column, analysing why the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is taking so long to decide upon a course of action following Will Smith's clear violations of its standards of conduct. Not unless we have already talked in just as much length and depth about the fact it took the Academy an excruciatingly long 41 years to actually expel Roman Polanski, despite him having pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977 before fleeing the country. Side note - he wasn't the first Academy member to be expelled, that dubious honour belongs to Carmine Caridi who was booted out in 2004. Carmine Caridi's crime? Copyright infringement. Yes, the first person to be expelled from the Academy was guilty of giving friends pirated VHS tapes, while someone who had pleaded guilty to sex with a minor remained a member for another 14 years before facing the same punishment.

If we want to question whether the Academy should rescind Will Smith's Oscar in light of his behaviour, we should first question the decision made by the Academy in 2003 to award Polanski the Best Director Oscar, despite the fact he was facing jail on that 40-year-old rape case.

We have been quick to talk about Will Smith and demand "something is done', but we have been incredibly slow to talk about, or demand something is done about the behaviours of Harvey Weinstein, Woody Allen, Bill Cosby and the many more (mainly male) members who the Academy has taken far too long to censure for their behaviour and actions over the years.

Will Smith might have intended to silence Chris Rock with that slap, but we need to make sure the buzz around that moment doesn't drown out all the other conversations we need to be having right now. So let's turn the spotlight away from that one moment and instead ensure actors like Troy Kotsur get their moment in the spotlight instead.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Stratford Press

Stratford Press

A stroll through the history of the Stratford Press

16 Dec 06:13 AM
Stratford Press

Opinion: A year of change and challenges for our community

16 Dec 02:11 AM
Opinion

Carl Bates: Christmas under the mountain - a year on

16 Dec 02:03 AM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Stratford Press

A stroll through the history of the Stratford Press

A stroll through the history of the Stratford Press

16 Dec 06:13 AM

Stratford Press prints last issue as NZME closes 14 community papers nationwide.

Opinion: A year of change and challenges for our community

Opinion: A year of change and challenges for our community

16 Dec 02:11 AM
Carl Bates: Christmas under the mountain - a year on

Carl Bates: Christmas under the mountain - a year on

16 Dec 02:03 AM
Stratford council to oppose Treaty bill, citing lack of consultation

Stratford council to oppose Treaty bill, citing lack of consultation

16 Dec 12:07 AM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Stratford Press e-edition
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP