{"id":46424,"date":"2026-08-15T09:53:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T04:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=46424"},"modified":"2026-08-15T09:53:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T04:53:26","slug":"will-smiths-king-richard-co-star-defends-his-oscars-slap-of-chris-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=46424","title":{"rendered":"Will Smith\u2019s \u2018King Richard\u2019 co-star defends his Oscars slap of Chris Rock"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2024\/01\/17\/14th_Governors_Awards_-_Arrivals_83906_s1440x960.jpg?f72536d07237fdd262042ae8f5e6e6de3b865f3c\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Actress <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/aunjanue-ellis-taylor\/\">Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor<\/a>, who co-starred with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/will-smith\/\">Will Smith<\/a> in \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/king-richard\/\">King Richard<\/a>,\u201d defended Mr. Smith\u2019s decision to slap comedian <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/chris-rock\/\">Chris Rock<\/a> at the 2022 Oscars, arguing the First Amendment shouldn\u2019t \u201cprotect a\u2014holes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ms. Ellis-Taylor, who played Mr. Smith\u2019s on-screen wife in the film, made the comments on The Daily Beast\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/obsessed\/will-smiths-on-screen-wife-aunjanue-ellis-taylor-still-stands-by-his-oscars-slap\/\">Obsessed<\/a> podcast, telling hosts she still supports her former co-star.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know that he wanted to protect his wife, and I stand by that,\u201d she said. \u201cI stand with him for that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Smith slapped Mr. Rock on stage after the comedian made a joke about Mr. Smith\u2019s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, who has alopecia. Mr. Smith went on to win the Academy Award for best actor that night for his role in \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/king-richard\/\">King Richard<\/a>,\u201d but the Academy later banned him from its events for a decade.<\/p>\n<p>Ms. Ellis-Taylor said blanket free-speech protections shouldn\u2019t extend to people \u201ccausing harm,\u201d comparing the debate to arguments she has heard used in defense of the Confederate flag.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know blanket First Amendment valorization. I don\u2019t buy into that,\u201d she said. \u201cYou can\u2019t use it as an excuse to harm someone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ms. Ellis-Taylor, who was raised in Mississippi, said that background shaped her skepticism of absolute First Amendment defenses.<\/p>\n<aside>\n<\/aside>\n<p>                        <a name=\"pagebreak\"\/><\/p>\n<p>She also praised Mr. Smith\u2019s conduct on the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/king-richard\/\">King Richard<\/a>\u201d set, saying he \u201cwould not allow anybody to be treated poorly in his presence,\u201d regardless of their role or status.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p style=\"font-size: 18px; color: #3e3e3e;\"><em><br \/>\n                          This article was constructed with the assistance of artificial intelligence and published by a member of The Washington Times&#8217; AI News Desk team. The contents of this report are based solely on The Washington Times&#8217; original reporting, wire services, and\/or other sources cited within the report. For more information, please read our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/ai-policy\/\" target=\"_blank\">AI policy<\/a> or contact Steve Fink, Director of Artificial Intelligence, at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2026\/aug\/14\/smiths-king-richard-co-star-defends-oscars-slap-chris-rock\/mailto:sfink@washingtontimes.com\">sfink@washingtontimes.com<\/a><br \/>\n                      <\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-size: 18px; color: #3e3e3e;\"><em><br \/>\n                          The Washington Times AI Ethics Newsroom Committee can be reached at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2026\/aug\/14\/smiths-king-richard-co-star-defends-oscars-slap-chris-rock\/mailto:aispotlight@washingtontimes.com\">aispotlight@washingtontimes.com<\/a>.<br \/>\n                      <\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Actress Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, who co-starred with Will Smith in \u201cKing Richard,\u201d defended Mr. Smith\u2019s decision to slap comedian Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars, arguing the First Amendment shouldn\u2019t \u201cprotect a\u2014holes.\u201d Ms. Ellis-Taylor, who played Mr. Smith\u2019s on-screen wife in the film, made the comments on The Daily Beast\u2019s Obsessed podcast, telling hosts she still&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2024\/01\/17\/14th_Governors_Awards_-_Arrivals_83906_c0-0-6000-3500_s1200x700.jpg?d0cce8be4950beca0410149b2b60a47cc71c6403","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}