John Leguizamo is reflecting on Will Smith’s Best Actor acceptance speech at the 94th Academy Awards, saying he “wish(es) it would’ve been a little clearer apology” to Chris Rock.
PEOPLE spoke with the Encanto voice actor, 57, on Sunday at the Vanity Fair Oscars Party, following the ceremony that saw Will, 53, take the stage and strike Rock, 57, across the face after the latter made a hair-related joke about Jada Pinkett Smith.
During his acceptance speech later in the show, Will addressed the incident directly, offering an apology to the Academy and his fellow actors for the incident but failed to mention Rock.
“I think he tried. I wish it would’ve been a little clearer apology to Chris, because the poor guy must be shocked, left the building. So that was kind of unfortunate,” says Leguizamo. “That kind of thing, you just call your friend. You go, ‘Don’t do that to me again, man.’ Call him.”
At one point in his emotional speech, Will said, “I want to be a vessel for love.” In his comments to PEOPLE, Leguizamo says, “Will said he’s a vessel of love. Be a vessel of love then, you know? That was not a vessel of love. That was a vessel of anger. And don’t do that.”
