Jada Pinkett Smith calls for ‘healing’ in response to Will Smith’s Chris Rock slap

Los Angeles, March 30 (IANS): Actress Jada Pinkett Smith responded somewhat cryptically to her actor husband Will Smith slapping comedian Chris Rock at the Oscars.

According to ‘Variety’, Pinkett Smith posted a message to her Instagram page that reads: “This is the season for healing. And I’m here for it.”

The actor was the subject of the joke that led Will Smith to take the Oscar stage and slap Rock. The comedian joked about Jada Pinkett Smith starring in ‘G.I. Jane 2’ because of her shaved bald head. Rock was referencing the 1997 movie ‘G.I. Jane’, in which Demi Moore appears with a shaved head, reports ‘Variety’.

Several days before the Oscars, Pinkett Smith posted a message on TikTok in which she embraced her bald head.

The actor has alopecia, which causes hair loss, and she shaved her head last year. In the TikTok message, which is set to India Arie’s song ‘I Am Not My Hair’, Pinkett Smith discussed the pressure she used to feel to have her hair look ‘European’ and the freedom she feels now that her head is shaved.

“I liked my hair out wild and curly, but nobody wanted that,” the actor said. “I had to learn to get the courage to go, ‘I’m not doing it’, which is why I feel the freedom today. I don’t give two craps what people feel about this bald head of mine. Cause guess what? I love it.”

Will Smith issued an apology to Rock on the night after the Oscars, writing: “Jokes at my expense are part of the job, but a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally. I would like to publicly apologise to you, Chris.”

“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.”