Some might think that Will Smith dealt a blow to his reputation as he slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars recently. However, the results of a social media and online analysis proved a more balanced to favorable outcome.
Although social media immediately reacted to Will Smith’s (1.6 billion impressions) impulsive reaction to Chris Rock’s (521 million impressions), comment about Will’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith’s “GI Jane hair”, his emotional acceptance for Best Actor at the Oscars of 2022 softened the blow.
Twenty years after his first nomination, Will Smith finally won his first Oscar – awarded for best actor in a leading role for his portrayal of Richard Williams, the father of tennis superstars Venus and Serena.
Will Smith leveraged the theme of the film, King Richard, in an emotional acceptance speech as he told the audience. "I know to do what we do, you got to be able to take abuse, you got to be able to have people talk crazy about you. In this business, you got to be able to have people disrespecting you. And you got to smile and you got to pretend like that's okay."
True to its nature, most items were generated on Twitter as fans took to the platform in support of the actor. Online coverage ranked third by number of items tracked in South Africa.
Comparing the two Hollywood star’s standing in the media neutral to positive coverage overshadowed negative media sentiment, while Chris Rock’s comment resulted in half of media mentions analysed as negative. It appears that Will Smith has banked a strong enough reputation to withstand the blow dealt to Chris Rock.
