Michael Bay Gets Blunt About The Will Smith Slap
Everybody, and we mean everybody, has an opinion on Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars, which means we will probably be talking about The Slap for at least the next 100 years. And if somebody says that they don't have an opinion about the slap, that means that their non-opinion of the slap is their opinion. Daniel Radcliffe said on "Good Morning Britain" the whole thing made him "dramatically bored." Jerrod Carmichael made not talking about the slap the entire content of his "Saturday Night Live" opening monologue. Hollywood director Michael Bay, who has worked closely with Smith on a few movies, apparently also has a very strong take on not having a take.
It's not every day that one incredibly famous actor smacks another incredibly famous actor in the face live onstage during the most prestigious awards ceremony in Hollywood. But while everyone else was talking about alopecia, race politics, toxic masculinity, chivalry, and marriage dynamics, Michael Bay had some very on-brand Michael Bay thoughts.
Michael Bay said he's never seen Will Smith 'lose his cool like that'
Michael Bay, known for directing action movies like "Transformers" and "Bad Boys" — the latter of which starred Will Smith — said, "I don't really care" about The Slap. But he had some pretty strong words explaining why. "Hollywood gets really self-absorbed," Bay told Yahoo! News. "There are babies getting blown up in Ukraine right now. We should be talking about that."
But that wasn't all that Bay had to say on the matter. He also said that the smack was "wrong to begin with," but also defended Smith, saying he's "never seen him lose his cool like that." Bay said that having worked with Smith, he'd seen him mess around with people before, and at first thought the smack was just a bit. Then he seemed to imply that if Smith really wanted to do serious damage to Chris Rock he could have. "Listen, it was a slap. It wasn't a punch," the director said. "He's very good at fighting, he's trained at that."
Though Smith does have his defenders, he's still facing a lot of potentially more serious consequences for his actions. Facing possible suspension, Smith recently resigned from the Academy, according to Variety. According to Page Six, he even almost lost his talent agency.