At this year’s Oscars, even before Mr. Rock took the stage, Regina Hall alluded to the Smiths’ relationship in a comedic bit in which she suggestively asked to personally inspect some of the most eligible bachelors in the world. ‘Hollywood, joking that their Covid test results had been lost. “Will Smith,” she said. “You’re married, but you know what, you’re on the list and it looks like Jada has approved of you. So come up here.” He laughed and sat there.

What brought Mr Smith to his feet, deliberately walking across the room to hit Mr Rock, was an ad-libbed line on Ms Pinkett Smith’s shaved head. It stung, Mr. Smith later explained, because Mrs. Pinkett Smith suffers from alopecia, which leads to hair loss. “A joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to bear, and I reacted emotionally,” Mr. Smith explained in the apology to Mr. Rock and others that he posted on Instagram Monday night. For his part, Mr Rock said on his comedy show on Wednesday that he was still processing the event. (A representative for Mr. Smith declined to comment. Representatives for Ms. Pinkett Smith and Mr. Rock did not respond to requests for comment.)

For many viewers and fans, especially black fans, the incident involving three of Hollywood’s most prominent black entertainers was heavy and did not lend itself to easy judgment. “It’s a really complicated moment, because of all the ways it resonates with gender, race, power and brand,” said Miriam Petty, a film historian and professor at Northwestern University who studies celebrity. black.

Some commentators criticized Mr. Rock for what they considered a low joke. Others, like actress Tiffany Haddish, who co-starred with Ms Pinkett Smith in the comedy ‘Girls Trip’, applauded Mr Smith for appearing to defend his wife’s honor, which Dr Petty said. called understandable in a world where Black women and other women of color do not enjoy the same social protections as their white counterparts. But was this position anti-feminist? Did he glorify violence? “Again – messy, messy, messy,” Dr. Petty said.

Since turning 50, Mr. Smith has to some extent softened his public image. A recent YouTube series, “Best Shape of My Life,” which ostensibly targeted her non-superhero father, was really about undoing her own behavioral restrictions. He traveled unsafe for the first time in years; finally learned to swim; and tried to come to terms, after her father died in 2016, with the toll of that relationship.

In the statement announcing his resignation from the academy, Mr Smith said: “Change takes time and I am committed to doing the work to ensure that I never again allow violence to overtake reason. “