What The Will Smith 10-Year Academy Ban Means For The Actor

Judgment has seemingly arrived for the entertainment business, as the academy bans will smith for ten years. Will Smith’s ban is because he slapped actor and comedian- Chris Rock on stage at the recent Oscar ceremony.

The decision was made during a Board of Governors meeting held earlier in the day in Los Angeles. The meeting, initially scheduled for April 18, was expedited after Smith announced his resignation from the Academy last week.

According to the President, David Rubin, and CEO, Dawn Hudson of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences:

“The Board has decided, for a period of 10 years from April 8, 2022, Mr. Smith shall not be permitted to attend any Academy events or programs, in person or virtually, including but not limited to the Academy Awards.”

“The 94th Oscars were meant to be a celebration of the many individuals in our community who did incredible work this past year; however, those moments were overshadowed by the unacceptable and harmful behavior we saw Mr. Smith exhibit on stage.”

“During our telecast, we did not adequately address the situation in the room. “For this, we are sorry. This was an opportunity for us to set an example for our guests, viewers and our Academy family around the world, and we fell short — unprepared for the unprecedented.”

They were also full of praises for Chris Rock, who showed composure amidst all the drama in their open letter.

“We want to express our deep gratitude to Mr. Rock for maintaining his composure under extraordinary circumstances.” The President added.

See more details of the letter below:

Will Smith might have seen this coming after his actions towards Chris Rock, little wonder he sent a resignation letter to them. However, the Academy maintained that they would move ahead with its procedures for disciplinary action, and here we are!

What The Will Smith Academy Ban Means For The Actor

Will Smith already steps away from The Academy in his own resignation a week ago.  With that Will cannot vote for any awards for upcoming shows.

Now, other implications of the Academy banning Will Smith for ten years, automatically stripping the right to attend the Oscars for next 10 years for all voters.

Smith will not be allowed to attend any of the events hosted by the academy, including the Governors Awards, which celebrates honorary Oscars and is not televised.  He also will not be able to attend the annual academy luncheon, which celebrates each year’s nominees.

There is still a bit of unclarity on whether Smith will be allowed to be nominated for awards himself. According to the NYTimes, “two industry figures with knowledge of its rules and who were granted anonymity to discuss academy proceedings said that Mr. Smith is still eligible to win Oscars but cannot attend the Academy Awards ceremony and other events.”

Essentially that means that if you have a film where you think it is an Award winning film, you probably don’t want Will Smith involved in any way (actor, producer, director, etc.) because you would still fear that the film will not be able to get nominated in any of those categories, considering Smith’s involvement.

Also, it is a customary for the former Best Actor winner to present the award to the successor in the Best Actress category the following year, but Will Smith will not experience this moment. It is not only a blow to him; it is also a blow to the Academy since their tradition will have to break.

Several Will Smith projects are already on hold indefinitely, but the news of the Will Smith Oscars ban will basically provide no rush to work on any of those projects.  Bad Boys 4 is already on hold, as is a Will Smith biopic. Will Smith was also said to be working on I Am Legend 2 with Michael B Jordan. No word on that yet, but wouldn’t be surprised if Jordan stepped back from the film altogether.

Will Smith also owns a production company, Overbrook Entertainment.  The first project they had lined up this year was a film titled, Emancipation, about a slave who escapes. It was set to star Will Smith. Production on the film actually started since last Summer and it cost $120 million to make the film.  Apple+ Tv owns the rights and was scheduled to announce a release date shortly after the Oscars this year.  That film was expected to be an Oscar contender for 2023.  Now, it may not be released for a while.

There was also talk of a Deadshot movie, a standalone film for his character in the original Suicide Squad movie.  But that is pretty much dead now.

The 10 year ban means that there is a future for Will Smith at the Oscars some day. Unfortunately it won’t be until he is 63 years old or older. Nominations after all these incidents might be hard for him.

Updated @ 10:00pm

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