According to Chris Rock, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s feud began long before the notorious Oscars slap in 2022.
The slap of the decade
About a year after the scandal that horrified millions of viewers across the world, Chris Rock has finally opened up about being slapped by Will Smith during the Oscars.
Rock addressed about Smith towards the conclusion of his stand-up performance Selective Outrage, which was broadcast live on Netflix from the Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore on Saturday night. Rock seemed exhausted and furious as he did so.
Rock made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, having a bald head that she shaves due to alopecia during last year’s Oscar ceremony.
Smith, who went on to win best actor that night, hit Rock in the middle of the broadcast. Smith yelled at Rock from his seat before approaching the stage to slap Rock across the face.
Hollywood is a lot of drama
The moment Smith walked onto the stage and smacked Rock around the face in what at first appeared to be a theatrical reaction to the comedian’s joke about Jada’s hair was seen on camera by everyone in the world.
Yet Rock asserts in a live performance for Netflix this weekend that the conflict between him and the Smiths dates back to 2016, following Smith’s appearance in the film Concussion.
Smith’s portrayal in the movie led to expectations that he would be nominated for Best Actor during that year’s Oscars season; but, when he wasn’t, Rock said Jada took her frustrations out on him.
He claimed on the program that his wife had advised him to stop attending the Oscars years earlier. He causes me a f**king concussion, and I shouldn’t be hosting because her man wasn’t nominated for Concussion.
Rock went on to allege that Jada told Rock he should withdraw ‘since Will didn’t get nominated’, but Rock apparently didn’t give in and went on to host the event last year, when he compared Jada’s shaved head to ‘GI Jane’.
Smith warned Rock after storming the stage, “Keep my wife’s name out of your f**king mouth.”
Rock asserted in the Netflix special that the purported request from Jada to be involved in the Oscars was the catalyst for last year’s events, saying: “That’s how it is – she begins it, I complete it, OK? That’s what the f*** happened. Nobody’s picking on her. She started this s***.”
The comedian didn’t mention the slap until the end of the show, when he said: “I got smacked at the f***ing Oscars by this motherf***er.” He then acknowledged that fans “knew what happened to him.”
People ask, “Did it hurt?,” and the answer is still “yes,” he continued. I can’t stop hearing “Summertime” in my ears.
Rock said that he “took the hit like Pacquiao” and claimed that he is “not a victim” who would appear on a chat program “weeping”.
“I know you can’t see on camera – Will Smith is much bigger than me. We are not the same size, okay?,” he jokingly said. “We are not in the same weight class, okay?
“You’ve never seen me do a movie with my shirt off. Will Smith does movies with his shirt off.”