Academy members are predictably split about whether they'd vote for Will Smith's Emancipation

While the rest of the world has generally moved on with their lives, Hollywood hasn’t yet gotten over The Slap. No one can argue that Will Smith hitting Chris Rock on the Oscars stage wasn’t a bad call, but one would think that he assassinated President Lincoln for all the continued fuss about what went down in that theater. Now that Smith has a new film coming out (Anton Fuqua’s Emancipation on Apple TV+), Tinseltown is once again working itself into a lather about whether it’s even okay for an actor who once slapped someone to be in a movie.

The Hollywood Reporter interviewed a number of members of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on their feelings about the release of Emancipation and its awards chances, which are unsurprisingly a mixed bag. Many are shocked that Apple decided to release it now rather than holding the film for a year, but most are agreed that the greater cast and crew shouldn’t be punished for one man’s actions. Plenty of voters said they were willing to give the film as a whole a chance in the Oscars race.

As for Smith himself, it’s a different story. A few voters are willing to separate the art from the artist, but plenty declare that they’ll never vote for him again. “Nominating Will Smith would be a slap in the face to the Academy,” says one jokester from the music branch. “Would I vote for Will Smith? Right after I vote for Trump,” is the “sarcastic” comment of another voter. And Stu Zakim, one of the few non-anonymous responders (from the marketing/public relations branch), dramatically declares, “[Forget] about the Academy membership even thinking about acknowledging his performance, even if it’s the best thing since Brando in On the Waterfront or The Godfather. His actions embarrassed all of us and tainted the Academy’s image worldwide.”

Recall that this is the same institution that nominated and/or awarded the likes of Casey Affleck, Mel Gibson, Woody Allen, and Roman Polanski well after allegations of harassment, racism, or sexual assault had been levied against them. It’s surely tedious to point this out by now, but Smith is far from the most embarrassing (former) member of the Academy. It wasn’t an act of terrorism, guys, it was one ill-advised slap that didn’t even knock Chris Rock off his feet!

Here’s a refreshingly contrarian take, from another member of the marketing/PR branch (who, for the record, wouldn’t vote for Smith simply because they “don’t care to vote for the same person two years in a row”). “I do not believe Will Smith should be punished for his out-of-character behavior last year,” this person says. “The Oscar ceremony is not sacrosanct; it is not a place to punish someone’s personal behavior, though it has been used to do that. I strenuously object to the type of coarse and insulting comment called ‘humor’ being trotted out at the Oscars. I am surprised someone didn’t react against it before.” Comedians take note, the rest of you should keep people’s names out of your fuckin’ mouths as well!

The fact of the matter is, even if Smith’s performance was so unimpeachable as to overcome the Academy’s obvious distrust, he’s still banned from the ceremony for another ten years—and voters might simply cast their ballots to avoid the awkward situation of awarding someone who is absent. His reputational recovery, at least in this realm, comes down to this, from another responder: “Everyone has a bad moment or a bad night in life, which can be forgiven. But what he did was terrible, frightening and so out of character—or what he presented to us as his character for so long. Thus, some type of public reckoning is in order if he wants the publicity and our votes. His apology upon accepting the Academy Award wasn’t enough, nor was his video released months later.”