After slapping presenter Chris Rock on stage at the Academy Awards, Will Smith announced in a statement that he resigned from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences.
“I am resigning from membership in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and will accept any further consequences the Board deems appropriate,” Smith said in a statement shared with CNN by his publicist.
Just moments after he slapped Chris Rock he won the best actor at the 94th Academy Awards and gave an emotional speech.
During the ceremony, Smith went on the stage and struck Rock during the broadcast after Rock made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, likening her shaved head to the buzzcut sported by Demi Moore in “G.I. Jane.” Pinkett Smith suffers from hair loss due to alopecia.
The Academy announced on Wednesday it had “initiated disciplinary proceedings” against Smith, and Smith resigned two days after.
David Rubin, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said in a statement Friday that the organization has received and accepted Smith’s “immediate resignation.”
Disciplinary actions by the Academy include suspension, expulsion, or any other sanctions allowed under the Bylaws and Standards of Conduct.
He initially apologized to the Academy during his televised acceptance speech for best actor, about forty minutes after the slap. But in that speech, he did not apologize to Rock.
Smith publicly apologized to Rock the next day via social media.
