Denzel Washington Gives Will Smith Profound Advice After Chris Rock Incident, Moments Before Best Actor Win

Denzel Washington gave Will Smith a piece of advice following his on-stage altercation with Chris Rock at the Oscars.

Smith won his first-ever Academy Award for his performance in King Richard. However, despite delivering an emotional speech, it's likely his win will be overshadowed by the previous events in the ceremony.

More specifically, the moment where he walked onto the stage and smacked Rock after he made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith, before telling the comedian to keep her name 'out of his f***ing mouth'.

After the moment passed and the show cut to an ad break, Washington spoke to Smith privately and told him: "At your highest moment, be careful, that’s when the devil comes for you."

At the start of his speech, he cited Richard Williams – the father of Venus and Serena Williams – as being a 'fierce defender of his family'.

He said: "I’m being called on in my life to love people and to protect people and to be a river to my people."

"I know, to do what we do, we’ve gotta be able to take abuse. You’ve gotta be able to have people talk crazy about you. In this business, you’ve gotta be able to have people disrespecting you.

“You’ve gotta smile and pretend that that’s okay. But Richard Williams and what I love – what Denzel [Washington] said to me a few minutes ago – ‘In your highest moments, be careful, that’s when the devil comes for you’.

"I want to apologise to the Academy. I want to apologise to all my fellow nominees.

"This is a beautiful moment and I’m not crying for winning an award. It’s not about winning an award for me. It’s about being able to shine light on all the people, Tim [White, producer], Trevor [White, producer], Zach [Baylin, writer], Saniyya [Sidney, who plays Venus], and Demi [Singleton, who plays Serena] and Aunjanue [Ellis, who plays Oracene Price] of King Richard and Serena, the entire Williams family.

"Art imitates life. I look like the crazy father, just like they said. I look like the crazy father just like they said about Richard Williams but love will make you do crazy things.

"Being able to love and care for my mother and my family, my wife... I’m taking up too much time. Thank you for this honour. Thank you for this moment. Thank you on behalf of Richard, Oracene, the entire Williams family.

"Hopefully the Academy invites me back," he joked before leaving the stage.

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