Vivica A. Fox Tears up Reacting to Jada Pinkett Smith’s ‘Self-Righteous’ Remarks About Oscars Slap

Vivica A. Fox is no fan of Jada Pinkett Smith’s recent take on Will Smith’s Oscar debacle. In her first public conversation about Smith slapping Rock after Rock made a joke about Pinkett Smith’s bald head, the Girls Trip star spoke about it on a recent episode of Red Table Talk episode. The episode was dedicated to informing “people what alopecia actually is,” a condition that Pinkett Smith suffers from. “My deepest hope is that these two intelligent capable men have an opportunity to heal, talk this out, and reconcile,” she said in part. “With the state of the world today, we need them both—and we all actually need one another more than ever,” she added. “Until then, Will and I are continuing to do what we have done for the last 28 years, and that’s keep figuring out this thing called life together.” 

Fox, who starred alongside Pinkett Smith in Set It Off and Smith in Independence Day, was not impressed. “This is going to be difficult for me,” Fox said before she started to cry while speaking about it as a guest co-host on The Wendy Williams Show. “These are my peers. I just wish that we could have had a little bit more accountability and for it to not seem so self-righteous on Jada’s part…I really felt to be a partner to Will Smith, whose career basically took a crumble that night, we were all rooting for Will Smith.” 

Fox added: “We wanted him to win. Will Smith that night, as far as I was concerned, was going to be crowned this generation’s Sidney Poitier, which is a huge honor. Will Smith was defending her honor. That was the reason he walked onstage and slapped, because he felt like his wife had been offended. Let’s not forget that Chris Rock was assaulted—we cannot forget that—for basically telling a joke that I really felt wasn’t that bad.”

More than anything, Fox says Smith’s actions deflected from a historical evening, noting Will Paker was the first Black man to produce the show and Smith is just one of a few to win Best Actor as a Black man. “This night was a night of African American and diversity for brown and Black people that now will forever be scarred.”