The Will Smith-Chris Rock slapgate controversy doesn’t seem to end anytime soon. The Motion Picture Academy had recently announced its decision to ban Will Smith from Oscar ceremonies and events for 10 years as discipline for slapping Chris Rock. Smith, who won Best Actor award at Oscars 2022, had even apologised to Chris later. However, that doesn’t seem to be enough, according to Harry Lennix.

Harry Lennix joined the list of people who slammed Will Smith’s action and said that he should be stripped off his award. The actor believed that Smith must return his Best Actor award to ‘redeem the integrity of the Oscars’ and ‘his resignation from the Academy was not enough’.

In a column for Variety, Harry Lennix wrote that the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ decision to ban Will Smith from attending Oscars and other Academy-related events for 10 years was a ‘toothless penalty’ that displayed the ‘shallowness of Hollywood morals.’ The Blacklist star stated that the only person who could ‘redeem the integrity’ of the Oscars was Smith himself and that he should do so by ‘express-mailing’ his trophy to the Academy. Stating that Smith had created an ‘existential crisis’ for the Academy with ‘one deft blow’, he called the controversy a ‘jolt to societal norms’ and that it would continue to ‘gnaw away’ at their national conscience if it was not ‘properly atoned for.’

In the column, Lennix also termed the Oscars proceedings as ‘frequently profane’, that attendees applauding Smith after the attack proved that the event was ‘stripped of its prestige’. The actor also stated the Academy’s decision to not strip Smith of the award was ‘shocking.