Actress Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, who co-starred with Will Smith in King Richard, defended the actor slapping comedian Chris Rock at the Oscars, saying the First Amendment should not “protect assholes.”
Ellis-Taylor revealed her thoughts to the Obsessed podcast with The Daily Beast, arguing that Will Smith only wanted to protect his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, after Chris Rock cracked a joke about her shaved head.
“I know that he wanted to protect his wife,” Ellis-Taylor said. “I stand by that. I stand with him for that.”
Ellis-Taylor even went as far to attack the First Amendment, seemingly unaware that she was endorsing violence in response to a joke.
“I think that, you know, this idea that First Amendment rights should protect everybody? I don’t think it should necessarily protect assholes. I don’t. I don’t. I really don’t, especially if you’re causing harm,” she said.
She went as far to compare slapping a comedian for cracking a joke to debates about the Confederate flag.
“I know blanket First Amendment valorization. I don’t buy into that. I just don’t,” she said. “To say the least, it needs to be nuanced. You can’t use it as an excuse to harm someone.”
Ellis-Taylor also praised Smith for how he “took care of everybody” on the set of King Richard.
“He just would not allow anybody to be treated poorly in his presence. He would just not allow it. And I cannot tell you how rare that is in this job,” she said. “I will always have a great deal of affection and care for him because he acted that way.”