Chris Rock, 58, has opened up for the first time about the infamous Oscars slap he received from Will Smith, in workshopping material for his forthcoming live Netflix special.
The Oscars exchange between Smith and Rock took place after Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head, saying, ‘Jada, I love you, G.I. Jane 2, can’t wait to see it!’
The Wall Street Journal reported that Rock talked about the incident that dominated talk of the evening in a January set in Charleston, South Carolina in preparation for his upcoming Netflix special Selective Outrage.
He said, ‘The thing people want to know . . . did it hurt? Hell yeah, it hurt;’ Rock also referenced their respective roles in the 2001 Smith film Ali and his 1991 movie New Jack City: ‘He played Muhammad Ali! I played Pookie!’
Rock added, according to The US Sun, ‘Even in animated movies, I’m a zebra, he’s a f***ing shark.’Rock referenced one of Smith’s rap tracks, saying, ‘I got hit so hard I heard Summertime ringing in my ears.’
The reference was to the 1997 movie which featured Demi Moore with a shaved head. (Pinkett Smith, 51, has diagnosed with alopecia, which causes hair loss.)
The Philadelphia-born actor then walked onstage and smacked Rock, then returned to his seat and shouted at him twice, ‘Keep my wife’s name out of your f***ing mouth!’ to a stunned audience.Â
Later in the evening – in his acceptance speech after winning the Best Actor Oscar for his role as tennis patriarch Richard Williams in King Richard – Smith apologized to the Academy and other nominees, but made no reference to Rock.
Smith subsequently apologized on multiple occasions over the incident, and resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ahead of being issued a 10-year ban from the Oscars.
In an apology he issued in July over the incident in an online clip, Smith said his spouse ‘had nothing to do with’ his attack on Rock.
The special will air live on March 4 from Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theatre on the streaming service, a week ahead of this year’s Academy Awards broadcast March 13.
