Will Smith resigns from Academy membership over Oscars slapgate. What happens to the actor's career after this?

After a lot of controversy, actor Will Smith finally resigned from the motion picture academy on Friday for slapping Chris Rock on the stage of the Oscars award on March 28. A spokesperson of Smith issued a statement on his behalf.

The statement said, I will fully accept any and all consequences for my conduct. My actions at the 94th Academy Awards presentation were shocking, painful, and inexcusable.” It further added that the ‘Men In Black’ actor is aware that he has betrayed the trust of the Academy. “I deprived other nominees and winners of their opportunity to celebrate and be celebrated for their extraordinary work…I am heartbroken. I want to put the focus back on those who deserve attention for their achievements and allow the Academy to get back to the incredible work it does to support creativity and artistry in film. ”

How Does The Slapgate Impact Will Smith's Career?

The 53-year-old actor was currently under investigation by the Academy for violating standards of conduct of the Oscars awards. The incident has tarnished Smith’s image considerably and production houses, as well as film-makers may be wary of taking a chance on the actor moving forward.

The actor currently has several films in the pipeline like the ‘Bad Boys 4’, ‘Bright 2’ and Apple's ‘Emancipation’, in which he plays a runaway slave in his kitty. And, the way these films pan out, whether or not Apple shelves the film or decides to postpone it till the heat on Smith’s reputation dies down will say a lot about the future of Smith’s career in Hollywood.

It isn’t uncommon for Hollywood’s leading men’s careers to blow up in smoke after a controversy of such magnitude. Just to give you an example, previously Johnny Depp was dropped from the ‘Fantastic Beasts’ films after he lost a libel case against a news outlet that called him a wife beater in one of the articles. Similarly, another A-lister, Mel Gibson, had been in the outs with Hollywood fraternity for his anti-Semitic and racist comments.

What Is The Slapgate?
For those of you who do not know what the slapgate is, here are the details. On the evening of the award ceremony, the actor huffed in anger as he walked straight onto the stage from his front-row Dolby Theatre seat and lodged slaps on Chris Rock’s cheeks because the comedian made fun of his wife – Jada Pinkett Smith’s baldness and compared her to ‘G.I Jane’. Pinkett Smith’s baldness is caused by a medical condition called alopecia that results in extreme or complete hair fall.

The actor’s angry outburst immediately caused the Academy members to request his exit. However, he refused to leave the auditorium and later that night, won the trophy for the Best Actor award for his performance in ‘King Richard’. While accepting his award, the actor said, “In this business, you gotta be able to have people disrespecting you and you gotta smile and you gotta pretend like that's OK. But Richard Williams, and what I loved, thank you D. Denzel (Washington) said to me a few minutes ago, he said, 'At your highest moment, be careful. That's when the devil comes for you.'"

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The actor further added that he wanted to apologize to the Academy and all his 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…I'm hoping the Academy invites me back. Thank you,” he concluded.

A day later, Smith took to his Instagram profile to issue a public apology to Rock yet again. This time the actor wrote,” My behavior at last night’s Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable. Jokes at my expense are a part of the job, but a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally…I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.”