The academy’s board met Wednesday to initiate disciplinary proceedings against Smith for breaches of team etiquette. The academy said disciplinary action against Smith could include suspension, expulsion or other sanctions. Many have focused on why Smith was allowed to sit in the front row of the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles after the incident. On Wednesday, the academy suggested that it attempted to remove the actor from the audience. “Things turned out in a way we could not have predicted,” the academy said. “While we would like to make it clear that Mr Smith was asked to leave the ceremony and refused, we also acknowledge that we could have handled the situation differently.” A spokesman for the academy declined to comment on how he tried to oust Smith. After the actor hit Rock in response to a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, many stars, such as Denzel Washington, Bradley Cooper and Tyler Perry, spoke with 53-year-old Smith. The academy said Smith has the opportunity to defend himself in a written response before the board meets again on April 18. The film academy earlier condemned Smith’s attack on the Rock stage, but used stronger language on Wednesday. The award-winning Rock appears behind the scenes during the 94th Annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday. (Al Seib / AMPAS / Getty Images)
“Mr. Smith’s actions at the 94th Oscars were a deeply shocking, traumatic event to be seen in person and on television,” the academy said. “Mr. Rock, we apologize for what you experienced on our stage and thank you for your resilience at that time. We also apologize to our candidates, guests and spectators for what happened during a celebration.” On Monday, Smith apologized to Rock, the academy and the audience, saying: “I was off the line and I made a mistake.” A spokesman for Smith did not immediately respond to inquiries Wednesday about the academy’s latest moves.

Few members of the academy were ever expelled

Only a handful of academy members have ever been expelled, including Harvey Weinstein, Roman Polanski, Bill Cosby and actress Carmine Caridi, who was fired for sharing the awards. “We’re not going to take this Oscar from him,” Whoopi Goldberg, a member of the academy’s board, told The View on Monday. (Even the Oscars won by the expelled members were not previously ordered to be returned.) Goldberg added that “no one is okay with what happened.” Rock, who has not yet responded publicly to the incident, was scheduled to perform his stand-up routine Wednesday night in Boston. Others from Sunday’s TV show also began to speak openly. Co-host Wanda Sykes told Ellen DeGeneres in an interview on April 7 that she felt physically ill when Smith slapped Rock. When he returned to his seat, Smith shouted twice at Rock “to keep my wife’s name out of your mouth.” Wanda Sykes, co-host of the Sunday Oscars, appears on Tuesday in a photo released by Warner Bros. during the recording of the Ellen DeGeneres show in Burbank, California. Sykes talked about the conflict between Smith and Rock. (Michael Rozman / Warner Bros./The Associated Press)
“I’m still a little bit injured by this,” Sykes said in a clip released Wednesday. Within an hour, Smith was back on stage receiving the Best Actor Award for his performance in King Richard. Many at the Dolby Theater applauded him standing up. “I was like, how vulgar is that? This is the wrong message. You attack someone and they take you out of the building and that’s it. But to let him go, I thought it was vulgar,” Sykes said. “I wanted to be able to run out [on stage] after winning and saying, “Well, unfortunately, Will could not be here tonight.”