LOS ANGELES — Two of the hosts of Sunday’s 94th Annual Academy Awards are speaking out about the incident that had Will Smith come on stage and slap Chris Rock during the show. Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes co-hosted the event with Regina Hall, and both said Wednesday that they felt “traumatized” by the violence.
Wanda Sykes appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres show Wednesday, and in a preview clip from the show Sykes said, “I just felt so awful for my friend Chris (Rock), you know, it was sickening. I physically felt ill. And I’m still a little traumatized by it.” Ellen responded to Sykes, saying “Me too.”
Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars ceremony after the comedian made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair loss. Pinkett Smith, who is married to Will Smith, released her first public statement after the incident on Tuesday, with a post on Instagram saying, “This is a season for healing and I’m here for it.”
In the interview with DeGeneres, Sykes also said she was disappointed that Smith was allowed to stay in the theater and accept the award for best actor, saying: “For them to let him stay in that room and enjoy the rest of the show and accept his award, I was like, ‘How gross is this? This is just the wrong message,’” CNN reported.
In a post on Instagram that has since been deleted, Amy Schumer wrote that she was still feeling “triggered and traumatized” but that she believed Chris Rock “handled it like a pro.”
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