Chris Rock’s mother recently spoke about the bizarre Oscars slapping incident involving her son and Will Smith.
The 57-year-old comedian was on stage to present an award at the Oscars last month when he made a joke about Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head. Smith, 53, walked up on stage and slapped Rock before telling the comedian to keep his wife’s name out of his mouth.
Smith later apologized and announced his resignation from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the aftermath of the controversial incident. The King Richard actor has also since been banned from attending the Oscars for 10 years.
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In an interview with WIS-TV on Friday, Rock’s mother, Rose Rock, registered her displeasure with Smith’s actions and praised her son for the way he reacted after he was slapped, USA TODAY reported.
“When he slapped Chris, he slapped all of us. He really slapped me,” she said. “Because when you hurt my child, you hurt me.”
Rose Rock, who is a motivational speaker, advocate, and author, watched this year’s Oscars ceremony at home. She said she initially thought the slap had been orchestrated until Smith “started using obscenities.”
“You reacted to your wife giving you the side-eye, and you went and made her day,” she said in reference to the couple.
The incident occurred after Chris Rock took the stage to present the award for best documentary feature. And though the award went to Questlove for his Summer Soul documentary, Rose Rock said the incident clouded the filmmaker and musician’s moment.
“No one even heard his speech,” she said. “No one was able to just be in the moment because everyone was sitting there like, ‘What just happened?'”
Jada Pinkett Smith spoke about possibly addressing the Oscars slap on her Red Table Talk show last week. “Considering all that has happened in the last few weeks, the Smith family has been focusing on deep healing. Some of the discoveries around our healing will be shared at the table when the time calls,” a statement on top of the Facebook show read, per USA TODAY.
“Until then … the table will continue offering itself to powerful, inspiring and healing testimonies,” the statement added. “Thanks for joining us.”
The slapping incident occurred days before Rock was scheduled to embark on a comedy tour. During his first show, Rock told his fans he couldn’t really talk about the slap as he was still “processing” the incident.
“I don’t have a bunch of sh*t about what happened, so if you came to hear that, I have a whole show I wrote before this weekend,” he said. “I’m still kind of processing what happened.”
The 57-year-old, however, assured the audience he’ll eventually “talk about” the incident, adding that when he does, it “will be serious and funny.” And though a member in the audience also shouted “F*ck Will Smith!”, Rock did not respond.
