The Academy's Board of Governors plans to meet on April 18 to decide on how to discipline Will Smith.

"We don't condone anyone hitting anyone else unless it's in self-defense," the father of Venus and Serena Williams told NBC News. Smith won an Oscar for portraying Williams in the movie King Richard.

Will Smith appeared to slap Chris Rock after he made a joke about Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.

For more than three decades the actor has cultivated a specific type of on-screen personality, from The Fresh Prince to King Richard.