There are Oscars surprises, and then there’s watching one A-list star smack another in the face during Hollywood’s biggest night. The 92th Academy Awards was a spectacle that won’t soon be forgotten, in part due to some noteworthy wins for actors like Ariana DeBose and films like CODA, but, at least in the short term, mostly because of Will Smith and Chris Rock.
The Academy and the producers were committed to making a compelling TV product that stayed under three hours, and while they didn’t quite deliver on the latter, they certainly lucked into the former. Beyond the face-five itself, other noteworthy moments included powerhouse musical performances from Beyoncé and Billie Eilish, a solid showing by the trio of first-time hosts, and a more celebratory in memoriam segment complete with a rousing gospel choir.
Below are some of the big takeaways from this year’s show, as well as yet another breakdown of the slap seen ‘round the world.
Beyoncé opened the show in stunning fashion.
King Richard is going to be remembered as one of the two defining movies of the 2022 Oscars (more on that later), so in retrospect, it’s fitting the ceremony began with Beyoncé performing her song “Be Alive.” The much-hyped performance saw the singer and a slew of dancers clad in elegant, tennis ball yellow dresses on the Compton tennis courts where the Williams sisters famously learned to play the sport they would come to dominate.
The performance also featured a clever musical allusion to Compton’s own Dr. Dre, as the unmistakable “Nuthin’ But a G Thang” melody was blended into the live rendition. Always an animated performer, Beyoncé particularly stunned on the soaring final chorus.
Though she didn’t take home Best Original Song, losing out on the award to Billie Eilish’s “No Time to Die,” Beyoncé’s triumphant performance was easily one of the evening’s highlights.
The hosting hodgepodge worked better than expected.
The role of Academy Awards host has felt increasingly snakebit in recent years, to the point that the previous three ceremonies simply opted for no MC at all. For 2022, the show brought in the somewhat surprising combination of Regina Hall, Wanda Sykes, and Amy Schumer, marking the first time three women had hosted, as well as the first time there were three hosts in more than 30 years.
Though there were some hiccups, the trio of Hollywood veterans largely acquitted themselves well. A Hall bit where she gave Jason Momoa a “COVID patdown,” was an ace moment of physical comedy, while Schumer delivered several clever quips during her opening monologue.
“I’m Amy Schumer, or as they know me in Hollywood, ‘Melissa McCarthy said no,’” she joked, later poking fun at the middling critical response to multi-nominee Don’t Look UP. (She also did a pretty commendable job reacting to the Will Smith slap in real time.)
The three also had an excellent costume skit, where Sykes appeared onstage dressed as Richard Williams, Hall showed up as Tammy Faye Bakker (“I always wanted to play a crazy white lady”), and Schumer dangled from the ceiling dressed as Spider-Man.
They won’t be enshrined in the Oscar hosts’ Hall of Fame, but Hall, Sykes, and Schumer proved that maybe just getting three funny people together onstage is all we really need.
Some of the attempts to inject new life into the show fell flat.
The producers of the show, led by prolific producer Will Packer, really wanted something that would capture a younger audience, so they introduced gimmicks like the Oscars Cheer Moment–glorified Twitter polls that ended up meaning we saw clips of Cinderella and Justice League during a night celebrating the best in filmmaking. (At least we got to watch the bullet-dodging scene from The Matrix, too.)
Having DJ Khaled make an appearance during the intro fell predictably flat, and tapping three professional athletes to lead the James Bond tribute made little sense, even if Tony Hawk, Kelly Slater, and Shaun White looked spiffy in their tuxes. The anniversary celebrations were well-intended–the Pulp Fiction reunion was particularly charming–but the edit of The Godfather drew ire online, and in a year where the Academy was obsessed with trimming the broadcast, it’s hard to call them necessary inclusions.
The pre-recorded awards, which were the subject of widespread criticism leading up to the show, wound up being mostly innocuous, but occasional clunky editing really made the transition from live to taped footage jarring. Ultimately, it did feel disrespectful to the various craftspeople in the industry, and isn’t the kind of meaningful positive adjustment the show should stick with going forward.
Will Smith had the night’s biggest one-two punch.
First, he slapped Chris Rock in the face for a crude joke about his wife’s hair, then he won his first Oscar. It was a wild night for Will Smith, who looked emotionally overwhelmed when he took the stage to accept Best Actor for his role in King Richard. Clearly still affected by the slap, Smith’s speech featured several clear references to what just went down, including when he spoke about Richard Williams’ role as the protector of his family.
Smith struck Rock for an insensitive joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair, which she shaved off due to her alopecia diagnosis. It was not the first crack Rock made at the Smith family during an Oscars broadcast, as he made fun of Jada’s decision to boycott the award show due to its lack of diversity back in 2016. (It also wasn’t the first joke the couple were the subject of that evening, as Regina Hall poked fun at their open marriage during her aforementioned COVID test bit.)
On the telecast, much of what was said was censored, though international versions posted on social media showed a stunned Rock saying, “Will Smith just slapped the shit outta me,” followed by Smith yelling from his seat, “Keep my wife’s name out your fucking mouth.”
Smith didn’t shy away from the controversy, later stating, “I know to do what we do, you gotta be able to take abuse, you gotta be able to have people talk crazy about you. In this business, you gotta be able to have people disrespecting you. And you gotta smile and pretend like that’s okay.”
But Smith also seemed contrite, adding “I want to apologize to the Academy. I want to apologize to all my fellow nominees” (but not Chris Rock). He later said he hopes that the Academy will permit him back in future years.
“Art imitates life. I look like the crazy father, just like they said about Richard Williams. But love will make you do crazy things,” Smith said wryly.
There was (other) history made by CODA, Ariana DeBose, and Troy Kotsur.
Though it feels like the only thing people are talking about is the slap, there were several milestone moments this year. West Side Story star Ariana DeBose became the first openly queer actor to win an Oscar when she took home Best Supporting Actress. She is also the first Afro Latina actor to do so.
“Imagine this little girl in the back seat of a white Ford Focus. When you look into her eyes, you see an openly queer woman of color, an Afro Latina, who found her strength in life through art,” DeBose said. “And that’s what I believe we’re here to celebrate.”
DeBose’s major win was followed by a landmark moment for CODA’s Troy Kotsur, who became the second deaf performer to win an Academy Award, and the first in the Best Supporting Actor category. “This is dedicated to the deaf community, the CODA community and the disabled community. This is our moment,” Kotsur said, also highlighting the importance of the deaf theater space, where he initially cut his teeth as an actor.
The evening’s final award also went to CODA, which represents a significant step for the depiction of deaf stories in Hollywood (although some viewers have been critical of its particular portrayal of deafness). The audience at the show honored the film by giving it silent applause in sign language.
CODA also continued a notable recent Academy Awards trend, where the film that won Best Picture didn’t take home Best Director. In fact, CODA director Sian Heder was not nominated for the latter award, though she did take home best Adapted Screenplay.