Jim Carrey says that he would have sued Will Smith for '$200m' if he had slapped him

Jim Carrey has given one of the strongest responses yet to Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars on Sunday, saying he’d have ‘sued Smith for $200m' if it had happened to him.

In outrageous scenes, Smith walked onto the stage at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood and proceeded to hit the comedian following a joke he’d made about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith.

“Will Smith just smacked the s*** out of me,” Rock said at the time, before Smith shouted: “Keep my wife's name, out of your f***ing mouth."

Speaking to CBS This Morning, Carrey criticised Smith's actions and also voiced disapproval of how it was handled in the immediate aftermath.

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“I was sickened by the standing ovation,” he said. “Hollywood is just spineless en masse and it really felt like this is a really clear indication that we aren’t the cool club anymore.”

Host Gayle King went on to say: “If anyone else had walked from the audience and done that, they would’ve been escorted out by security or maybe even arrested.”

“He should have been,” Carrey said.

The actor added: “I would have announced this morning that I was suing Will for $200m because that video is going to be there forever.

“If you want to yell from the audience and show disapproval or say something on Twitter, you do not have the right to walk up on stage and smack somebody in the face ‘cos they said words.”

Carrey had a strong response following the events on Sunday nightCBS/Getty

Continuing to discuss the ugly incident, Carrey said: “It didn’t escalate, it came out of nowhere because Will has something going on inside him that’s frustrated.

“I don’t have anything against Will Smith. He’s done great things. But that was not a good moment. It cast a pall over everybody’s shining moment.”

It’s certainly a more eloquent response than many have had to the incident – including Drake, who bizarrely posted a picture of Smith in character as the Genie from Aladdin to his Instagram stories with no explanation.

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