Oscars Co-Host Wanda Sykes Calls Out Academy for Not Ejecting Will Smith After Slap: ‘How Gross’ of Them to ‘Let Him Stay’

Comedian and Oscar host Wanda Sykes tore into the Academy of Arts and Motion Pictures on Wednesday while filming an episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Sykes recalled to Ellen DeGeneres her experience of Will Smith walking onto to Oscar stage and slapping Chris Rock, saying it made her feel “physically ill.”

Sykes, who hosted the ceremony alongside Amy Schumer and Regina Hall told DeGeneres when she first learned from backstage what was happening, she was stunned and thought, “Is this really happening.”

“I just felt so awful for my friend, Chris. It was sickening. I physically felt ill. I’m still a little traumatized by it,” Sykes added in an interview that will air on April 7.

“Yeah. Because and 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, you assault somebody you get escorted out of the building. That’s it. But for them to let him continue, I thought was gross,” She said of the Academy allowing Smith to accept his Oscar and continue watching the show.

“No one has apologized to us,” she added, despite Smith having apologized to Rock and the Academy.

“We worked really hard to put that show together — so I’m like, what the hell is this?” Sykes concluded.

Smith apologized to Rock in an Instagram post the day after the now-infamous slap: “I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris,” he wrote. “I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.”

.@iamWandaSykes was here today and shared some thoughts about #Oscar night. pic.twitter.com/i5tj8sYbIB

— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) March 30, 2022

Watch the clip above via The Ellen DeGeneres Show