@trancepants
What stood out to me about the commercial break footage is that while she's not in shot most of the time, it appears that Jada is just sitting there throughout. I think what Rock said about her was utterly horrible but in terms of international attention it was a moment that would have made almost no impact unless she had chosen to speak about it later. By Will acting as he did, it's now front and centre worldwide and is something that will always be attached to her. Will took away her agency. Says, 'keep
my wife's name out of your mouth,' making her identity primarily about her relationship to him. it's not, 'you hurt Jada' it's 'you insult me though my wife.' He made her unhappiness into something about him. He's getting comforted in the break, while she is largely left sitting there.
It's absolute red fucking flags all over the place. She is hurt but suddenly he's both a hero and a victim because of his own rage. Nasty fucking man.
This.
There have been stories about Will Smith having issues about Jada's career successes (notably Gotham) for some time.
And now we have this. Instead of the story being "Brave Jada hurt by Oscar hair loss joke" with a picture of her looking sad but dignified, and an opportunity for her to discuss appearence expectations on her red table show, we have "Smith punches Rock" .
He's totally taken the narrative from her. She now can't talk about her reaction to Rock's joke as the main issue, the onus will all be on her response to Will's behaviour.
He's made her a victim, he's pinned her into a narrative that has him at the centre (despite the joke being about her), he's silenced her at the same time, and he's exploded the story to boot.
Tbh, if this is his modus operandi, I understand why she has emotional entanglements with others.