Oscars Debacle: Spare a thought for the publicists
Will Smith's reputational battle is well underway, but the Oscars, and Hollywood itself, have similar trials on the horizon...
Almost the first voice in Will Smith’s ear after slapping Oscars host Chris Rock for making fun of his wife, Jada, was his publicist. If we assume this wasn’t an elaborate stunt, this week the world may be wondering more than usual what on earth a publicist can do to influence a situation like that, and what Chris Rock and the Academy’s representatives will respectively be advising their charges.
The full extent of Meredith O’Sullivan’s input into Smith’s acceptance speech for his Best Actor award shortly afterwards is unclear, but the overall tactics were much more transparent and surprisingly coherent given the circumstances:
First: a simple enough mitigation of the assault as self-defence (without ever referring to it directly) to frame the whole thing as ‘protecting his family’. He also used anecdotes from King Richard to paint himself as a protector of the young and especially women.
Second: draw parallels with Richard Williams; this serves the dual role of likening himself to the rough-edged but lionhearted alpha-protector of the oppressed as depicted in the film, and also adds further mitigation by allowing for the inference that he was still somehow still ‘in character’ when he slapped Rock.
Third: waterworks. Court sympathy by inviting an emotional connection.
Fourth: contextualise the assault within (what Smith appeared to characterise as) the day-to-day abuse suffered by public figures, and the psychological and emotional toll that takes.
Fifth: through the Denzel reference, partially blame the assault on heightened emotions due to the occasion (also heavily implying that he was supported by his fellow Hollywood heavyweights – probably also the rationale behind invoking Venus and Serena).
Sixth: apologise, but not to Chris Rock. Family alpha-protectors don’t back down.
It was a pretty clever piece of rhetoric and a decent performance (for a performance it surely was) from Smith, especially given his heightened emotion and limited preparation time, and seems partially do have done the job. Of course, a lot of clear heads still see the slap as a breathtakingly petulant tantrum, and the speech as the Venn diagram of messiah complex and emotional meltdown, both the acts of a man divorced from reality. But discussion Monday morning, backed up by some further quick PR work, such as claims from high-profile intermediaries that the feud between Smith and Rock has already been settled, at least partially reflected Smith’s desire to be seen as a sincere - if perhaps on this occasion overly-intense- hunter-gatherer-style protector.
In terms of Smith’s longer-term future the fact that this was a moment of minor kneejerk violence, not the sustained expression of a cultural or political polemic may well help avoid ‘cancellation’. His biggest immediate threat is a murmur that the Academy might ask for its statue back. If Camp Smith gets wind that this gambit is under serious consideration then he might consider offering to return the award, doubtless stoking ‘art vs artist’ and anti-cancel culture outrage, and putting the ball uncomfortably back into the Academy’s court.
For the Academy it’s another scandal on their patch. The last Oscars moment for the ages was also a blunder; the erroneous awarding of Best Picture to La La Land. Major awards ceremonies are coming under fire in general for their male, pale and staleness, establishment back-slappery, lack of artistic taste, and just plain boringness. Also - for better or worse, most Award Ceremonies’ existence in the public consciousness is defined by things going wrong, or at least off-script. From Kanye at the VMAs to Chumbawumba soaking John Prescott at the BRITs, infamy and schadenfreude have always been more powerful than glitz and glamour at these events.
The Oscars at least punctured the boredom by adding to this Canon. The Academy now faces the near-impossibility of walking the line between its reputation as an entertainment spectacle and its credibility as an arbiter of artistry, good taste, honour and dignity. On one hand it could put its decision to award Smith the Oscar under review until he shows adequate contrition or passes some kind of ‘fit and proper’ test; but that would open a can of worms about where to draw the line. People are already pointing out that Harvey Weinstein has not been stripped of any of the dozens of Oscars he can at least partially claim.
The other extreme would be leaning into the feud. At tamest, next year this could involve a knowing, self-deprecating comedy sketch parodying the slap (ideally involving both protagonists from this year all hugs-and-cuddles). At most extreme, stoke the enmity and let the clickbait roll; use the Paul brothers to broker a celebrity boxing match between the two to raise money for Ukraine. Of course, if we have learned anything from Reality TV, it’s that the harder you chase entertainment value, the further you often end up from dignity and good taste.
Chris Rock may end up the night’s unlikely winner. His joke was naff and tasteless and kicked-down from a weird angle, but in resorting to violence Smith may have made him into a kind of martyr, canonised by the mob who claim that cancel culture is strangling humour and will hold this up as a perfect example of that theory in action.
The rest of Hollywood fares less well. The almost cult-like bubble of manicured privilege, self-congratulation and faux-earnest sanctimony managed to simultaneously do too little to condemn Smith at the time - ignoring the slap and then giving him a seal-like standing ovation 15 minutes later- and also blow it completely out of proportion.
Ultimately this ugly episode may not do Smith or Rock any long term harm, but the Hollywood establishment that served as a launchpad for such absurd immaturity is firmly under the microscope once more.