The inside scoop. Amy Schumer opened up about how she felt after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars — and revealed what the vibe was like behind the scenes.
“I’ll just say, I was backstage and I knew I had to go out,” the Life & Beth star, 40, said during a Wednesday, April 6, appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen. “I was kind of the only host that was going out solo after that. It really felt like the Situation Room, you know, of comedy.”
The Men in Black star, 53, walked on stage and slapped the Saturday Night Live alum, 57, after Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith‘s closely cropped haircut. When the “Miami” rapper returned to his seat, he yelled, “Keep my wife’s name out your f–king mouth!”
Andy Cohen had asked the comedian what she thought of Smith receiving a standing ovation from the audience when he accepted his best actor trophy later in the evening. The Trainwreck actress didn’t share her personal feelings about the moment, but she did hint that everyone backstage was at a loss about what to do following the actor’s win.
“We were all just, like, watching the monitor. And then he won,” the I Feel Pretty star told the Bravo exec, 53. “Everybody was just kind of floored with the whole thing. And I was just thinking about, ‘What am I going to do when I go out there?'”
Schumer, who cohosted the Oscars with Wanda Sykes and Regina Hall, attempted to diffuse the tension with a joke when she returned to the stage following Smith’s acceptance speech. “I’ve been getting out of that Spider-Man costume. Did I miss anything?” she joked. “There’s, like, a different vibe in here.”
During his speech, the King Richard star directly addressed the altercation. “I’m being called on in my life to love people and to protect people and to be a river to my people,” he said, visibly getting emotional. “I know to do what we do, you got to be able to take abuse. You got to be able to have people talk crazy about you.”
The Philadelphia native also apologized to the Academy and all of his “fellow nominees” in the category. “Art imitates life,” he added. “I look like the crazy father.”
One day after the ceremony, the Ali actor directly apologized to Rock in a statement shared via Instagram. Smith officially resigned from the Academy on Friday, April 1, but the organization still plans to hold a hearing about other potential consequences for his actions.
In her first stand-up show after the incident, Schumer said she had “no jokes” about the situation. “It was just a f—king bummer,” she told the audience at the Saturday, April 2, event. “All I can say is that it was really sad, and I think it says so much about toxic masculinity.”
Though the Last Comic Standing alum was disappointed by Smith’s outburst, there was at least one bit of the Oscars she loved: Lady Gaga and Liza Minnelli teaming up to present the award for Best Picture.
“That was one of my favorite moments,” she told Cohen. “I love how Lady Gaga is so there for people who are a little older than us.”
