Nicole Kidman's viral open-mouthed Oscars reaction wasn't in response to Will Smith hitting Chris Rock

• A photo of Nicole Kidman looking surprised at the 2022 Oscars went viral.
• People on social media linked her reaction to Will Smith hitting Chris Rock onstage at the awards.

A widely circulated image of Nicole Kidman looking surprised doesn't depict her response to Will Smith hitting Chris Rock at the ceremony, despite the fact that it's gone viral as a purported reaction to the event.

The image shows the "Being the Ricardos" star twisted around in her chair with her arm outstretched, wide-eyed, open-mouthed, and with dramatically raised eyebrows. In the wake of the ceremony, which took place Sunday night, the image went viral with people heralding it as the birth of a new meme.

However, multiple viral tweets purported or appeared to link Kidman's reaction to a moment during the ceremony when Smith walked onstage and hit Rock after the comedian made a joke about Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, being bald. Pinkett Smith has spoken about having alopecia, an autoimmune hair loss condition, and her decision to shave her head.

Two photos taken by USA Today's Robert Hanashiro and Reuters' Brian Snyder, both disseminated through Reuters Connect, show similar photos of Kidman's reaction. Hanashiro's photo is labeled as having been taken when Kidman took her seat at the show; Snyder's is explicitly labeled as having been taken before the start of the show.

Furthermore, footage from the moment of the incident shows Kidman off to the side of the stage in her blue-gray dress, her husband Keith Urban's jacket draped over her shoulders. Kidman had been spotted at the ceremony chatting with Zoë Kravitz during a commercial break while wearing the jacket, as well as with Smith and Pinkett Smith, according to videos posted by Variety executive editor Ramin Setoodeh.

As Vulture reported, the photo of Kidman was already circulating on Twitter long before the incident between Smith and Rock. Photographer Myung Chun of the Los Angeles Times, who captured a shot of the moment that's available on Getty Images, confirmed to Vulture that the photo had been taken during the non-televised portion of the show.

"It appeared that she was excited to see Jessica Chastain across the room," Chun told Vulture. "Kidman then reached out her arms and waved to her with both hands... Shortly thereafter, Chastain walked over to greet Kidman and her husband Keith Urban."

Kidman has been subject to the Oscar meme treatment in the past. At the 2017 Oscars, Kidman was captured clapping only her palms together, with her fingers stretched back away from each other. Footage of the moment went viral at the time, Insider previously reported.