Will Smith striking Chris Rock on the Oscars stage became one of entertainment’s most infamous moments. Now, Leslie Jones has revealed that Rock doesn’t find it a laughing matter, despite making it part of his comedy routine.
While promoting her memoir, “Leslie F**king Jones,” she told People how much it affected the star’s life. She emphasized that his family, including his kids and parents, witnessed the incident. This led Rock to seek counseling with his daughters.
“That s**t was humiliating,” she said. “People need to understand his daughters, his parents saw that.”
The slap occurred during the 2022 Academy Awards when Rock made a G.I. Jane joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s bald head, which was shaved due to her battle with alopecia. Smith strode onto the stage and struck Rock before uttering the now-famous line, “Keep my wife’s name out of your f**king mouth!” Jones, reflecting on the incident, mentioned her urge to intervene. “You don’t know that I was going to jump in my car and roll up there. I was so f**king mad on so many levels,” she remarked.
The “Saturday Night Live” alum pointed out the global scale of the event, reminding everyone, “This is the Oscars. The whole world is watching.”
According to Jones, Smith should have handled the situation differently and confronted Rock in private after the ceremony instead of reacting in such a public fashion. Rock, too, could have made different choices, she admitted. The actress questioned, humorously, why he didn’t run.
“I would’ve been running around that stage like, ‘Will, calm down. Jada, call your man!'” she joked.
Smith went on to win an Oscar for his role in King Richard, though his acceptance speech did little to make things right in Jones’ opinion. She believes Smith should have given a sincere apology before taking the award.
As for Rock, he talks about the slap in his Netflix comedy special, Chris Rock: Selective Outrage.