While the Academy Awards ceremony did not exactly go according as planned this year, co-host Regina Hall remains open to returning to host again someday. At this year’s event, which occurred in March, Hall served as one of three co-hosts alongside Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes. Unfortunately, the work they did was largely overshadowed by the infamous incident of Best Actor winner Will Smith smacking Chris Rock on the stage right in front of everyone.
Smith’s career and reputation have taken a hit after the controversial slap, but the actor has been looking to make things right. He recently posted a video to the internet of an open apology to Rock along with those offended by what they saw. In a new interview with Variety, Hall touched on the video, calling it the “first step” toward mending those bridges, if they can indeed be mended. For her part, she does understand Smith’s plight in the sense that she knows coming back from such controversy must be very difficult.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
For Hall, she can’t help but be reminded of her new mockumentary, Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. That film focuses on Sterling K. Brown and Hall as a pastor and his wife reopening their church following a major scandal. Hall points out what the film and Smith’s real-life situation have in common.
“I think it’s a tough thing and I know it’s a difficult road. The first step is he apologized. How people see it, it’s up to them…I know that wasn’t easy.”
When it comes to possibly hosting the Oscars again one day, Hall expressed a desire to do so by praising Schumer and Sykes and noting how wonderful the experience had been working with them. Barring the infamous slap, of course.
“Redemption. The whole point is we can evolve from maybe where we are.”
“I certainly had so much fun.”
Will Smith Has Been Banned for Ten Years from Academy Events
ABC
One big issue that many people had with the slap was how it seemed that Will Smith had not been properly punished for getting violent. He was not removed from the building and was allowed to accept his Best Actor Oscar and deliver an impassioned speech to applause from the audience. There were others who felt that Smith should not have been allowed to stay at all, and after the event, it was later announced by the Academy that Smith cannot attend the Oscars or any other Academy-related events for the next decade.
“I spent the last three months replaying an understanding the nuance and complexity of what happened in that moment,” Smith said in part in his apology video. “I’m not going to try to unpack all of that right now, but I can say to all of you, there is no part of me that thinks that was the right way to behave in that moment. No part of me that thinks that is the optimal way to handle a feeling of disrespect or insult.”