Will Smith was asked to leave the Oscars but REFUSED and broke their code of conduct

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Will Smith was asked to leave the Oscars after hitting Chris Rock but refused, the Academy said on Wednesday – also declaring that he had violated their code of conduct.

The 53-year-old actor marched onto the stage on Sunday and hit Rock, after Rock told a joke about Smith’s wife.

Shortly after, Smith was announced as the winner of the best actor award and went up to collect his statuette to a standing ovation from many of his peers.

On Wednesday the Academy said it had launched ‘disciplinary procedures’ against Smith, and confirmed he ignored their request for him to leave his seat.

Rock, who is yet to respond to Smith’s attack or his apology, will be on stage in Boston on Wednesday night for his first show since the incident.

‘The Board of Governors today initiated disciplinary proceedings against Mr. Smith for violations of the Academy’s Standards of Conduct, including inappropriate physical contact, abusive or threatening behavior, and compromising the integrity of the Academy,’ their statement said.

‘Mr. Smith was asked to leave the ceremony and refused, [but] we also recognize we could have handled the situation differently.’ 

Smith will receive 15 days notice of a vote as well as an opportunity to be heard by written response.

At the next board meeting – scheduled for April 18 – the Academy may take action that could include ‘suspension, expulsion, or other sanctions permitted by the Bylaws and Standards of Conduct.’

In his acceptance speech, Smith apologized to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences – whose members vote for the awards, and who stages the ceremony – but stopped short of apologizing to Rock.

Smith initially laughed off the attack, writing on Instagram on Sunday evening: ‘You can’t invite people from Philly or Baltimore nowhere!!’

Yet as the gravity of the situation became clear, Smith then posted a public apology to Instagram 24 hours after the ceremony, saying he wanted to say sorry formally to Rock.

He said his behavior was ‘unacceptable and inexcusable’ and left him ’embarrassed’.

‘I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris,’ he wrote.

‘I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. 

‘There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.’  

Condemnation of Smith has grown in the intervening days. 

In a letter leaked on Tuesday night, signed by Academy president David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson, it states that the ‘Academy’s Board of Governors will now make a determination on appropriate action for Mr. Smith.’  

Smith faces a range of outcomes, including forcing him to hand back his Oscar.

The most severe punishment would be expulsion from the Academy.

That would put Smith among the ranks of Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, and Roman Polanski, who were all expelled for sexual misconduct.    

Weinstein was expelled ‘for ‘sexually predatory behavior and workplace harassment’ and Cosby and Polanski were expelled ‘in accordance with the organization’s Standards of Conduct’ after they had been convicted of sexual assault. 

Weinstein and Polanski’s Oscars were never rescinded.

Jim Carrey, 60, led the condemnation of Smith, and said he was aghast by the adoration with which Smith was received after the attack. 

‘I was sickened by the standing ovation,’ he said, referring to when Smith took home the Best Actor award not long after the slap incident. 

‘I felt like Hollywood is just spineless en masse. It really felt like this is a clear indication that we’re not the cool club anymore.’

Benedict Cumberbatch, a fellow best actor nominee, as well as best director nominee Paul Thomas Anderson and actress Maya Rudolph were some of the stars who stood for Smith’s win. Venus and Serena Williams, whose father was portrayed by Smith in King Richard, also stood. 

Carrey, who briefly overlapped with Rock in the early 90s on Fox’s In Living Color, claimed Rock didn’t file charges about the slap because he ‘didn’t want the hassle’ and suggested Smith should have been arrested. 

‘I’d have announced this morning that I was suing Will for $200 million because that video’s gonna be there forever. It’s gonna be ubiquitous. That insult is gonna last a very long time,’ Carrey said.

The Mask actor seemed to indicate that expressing disapproval of the joke, by saying something on Twitter or even yelling from the audience, wasn’t beyond the pale – but what Smith ended up doing crossed the line.

‘You do not have the right to walk up on stage and smack somebody on the face because they said words,’ Carrey said.

He suggested that something was ‘going on’ inside of Smith that caused him to do that, and that he acted selfishly.  

‘It didn’t escalate, it came out of nowhere because Will has something going on inside him that’s frustrated and I wish him the best, I really do,’ Carrey said. 

‘I don’t have anything against Will Smith, he’s done great things.

‘It cast a pall over everybody’s shining moment, a lot of people worked really hard to get to that place,’ The Truman Show star added. 

‘It is no mean feat to go through all the stuff you have to go through when you get nominated for an Oscar. It’s a gauntlet of devotion. It was just a selfish moment.’ 

Carrey’s comments come as The View host Whoopi Goldberg, who is also a member of the Academy board of governors, said she believes Smith will be able to keep his Oscar but will face ‘big consequences because nobody is OK with what happened.’

Two days after the incident, Will’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, 50, finally broke her silence with an Instagram post that read, ‘This is a season for healing and I’m here for it.’

Goldberg doubled down on Tuesday on her promise to punish Smith, saying: ‘There are consequences. There are big consequences because nobody is OK with what happened. Nobody, nobody, nobody.’ 

The host claimed that producer Will Packer decided not to remove Smith from the event, ‘because that would have been another 15-, 20 minute-explanation about why we’re taking the black man out five seconds before they’re about to decide whether he’s won an Oscar or not.’

Goldberg did not know that he had been asked to leave, and refused to go. 

Marshall Herskovitz, president emeritus of the Producers Guild of America, was among the first to condemn Smith, tweeting shortly after the attack that Smith had ‘disgraced our entire community’. 

He said: ‘I call upon the Academy, of which I am a member, to take disciplinary action against Will Smith. He disgraced our entire community tonight.’  

Herskovitz accused those who defended the actor of ‘moral cowardice’.

‘People standing up and applauding after the first assault in 94 years of Oscar history. Moral cowardice,’ he said.  

Several Hollywood celebrities denounced Smith’s actions.

Alec Baldwin posted to Instagram and Twitter his condemnation of Smith’s behavior.

‘I’m sorry the Oscars turned into the Jerry Springer Show,’ he said. 

Comedian and director Judd Apatow called the display ‘pure out of control rage and violence’, claiming that Smith ‘could have killed’ Rock. 

He wrote: ‘Seems like Will Smith’s plan to get comedian and the world to not make jokes about him is not going to pan out. 

‘The Williams family must be furious. Pure narcissism.’

Actor and filmmaker Rob Reiner tweeted: ‘Will Smith owes Chris Rock a huge apology. There is no excuse for what he did. 

‘He’s lucky Chris is not filing assault charges. The excuses he made tonight were bulls**t’. 

Star Wars actor Mark Hamill dubbed it the ‘ugliest Oscar moment ever’. 

He added: ‘Stand-up comics are very adept at handling hecklers. Violent physical assault… not so much.’