When Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Academy Awards it not only set off a firestorm of controversy that eventually led to Smith being banned from the Oscars ceremony, it launched a thousand memes. One of those came from an image of Andrew Garfield, sitting at the show, apparently texting somebody. And it turns out Garfield was texting friends about the incident, something he feels bad about now because it was during one of the show’s high points.
During an appearance on The View to promote his new series, Under the Banner of Heaven, Andrew Garfield was asked about his texting during the ceremony. He admitted that while Kevin Costner was introducing the Best Director category, giving one of the show’s highlights about the power and the history of cinema, he took a moment to text his friends about what the Oscar theater was like following the slap. He says now he feels really bad about it. Garfield explained…
I feel so bad because Kevin Costner’s introducing the director nominees in the most beautiful and elegant way, and I’m like ‘There’s no way I’m going to be on camera for this.’ And everyone’s texting me, asking me what the vibe in the room is. And at that moment my friends took priority over Kevin. But I feel really bad about that.
Certainly, if you knew somebody who was sitting in the room during one of the most infamous moments in recent live television, you would probably text them to see what was going on. Andrew Garfield’s phone, and likely everybody else’s in the room, was going nuts as people tried to learn more.
The Oscar-nominated Garfield took a moment when he assumed no eyes would be on him to respond, and that’s when a camera decided to cut to him. We’ve all been there; you start a text conversation with somebody at a point you think will be good, then something happens, you probably shouldn’t be texting, but you need to finish a conversation.
And if you’re a fan of cinema, and you almost certainly were if you were watching the Oscars live in the first place, because few others do, Kevin Costner’s words before the Best Director award were some of the highlights of the show. Andrew Garfield says he feels bad that this all happened at this particular moment in the show, because it looks like he’s not paying attention, when clearly he was.
Andrew Garfield refrained from revealing exactly what his thoughts were in his texts, the actor didn’t feel he had anything new to say on the topic of the slap. The event itself and its aftermath have been litigated from all sides. Will Smith made a public apology after the fact, but that’s been the only real statement that either party has made. Chris Rock has indicated he’ll have something to say in the future, but he has yet to integrate the event into his standup show.
