Comedian and Oscars host Chris Rock reportedly made another film joke as he left the stage after being hit by Will Smith for his gag about Jada Pinkett Smith 'appearing in GI Jane 2'. Will Smith took the stage at the 94th Academy Awards in Los Angeles this week and hit Chris Rock in the face.
Rock had just made a gag about Jada, Will's wife, saying he couldn't wait to see her in GI Jane 2 - a reference to the fact that Jada has a shaved head. But the actress recently revealed she is suffering from the hairloss condition alopecia, triggered by an autoimmune response, and Will Smith was unhappy.
Cameras caught the moment Smith walked up from his seat at the front of the stage and hit Chris Rock in the face, before returning to his seat and shouting abuse at the host. Rock, 57, addressed the incident publicly for the first time at a stand-up show in Boston on Wednesday night.
According to audio from the gig, shared by Hollywood trade outlet Variety, Rock told audiences: “How was your weekend? I don’t have a bunch of shit about what happened, so if you came to hear that, I have a whole show I wrote before this weekend.
“I’m still kind of processing what happened. So, at some point I’ll talk about that shit. And it will be serious and funny.”
But Vanity Fair says it wasn't Rock's first comment on the incident - saying he also made a remark referencing another movie as he left the stage. A Vanity Fair awards insider said: “When Chris Rock walked back to the wings of the stage with the winners, his cheek was red, but he tried to play it off to the gobsmacked crew and fellow presenters by making a joke about one of Will Smith’s other Oscar-nominated roles,” they wrote. "One witness said he remarked loudly, ‘That’s the only time you get hit by Muhammad Ali and it doesn’t leave a scratch'."
Will Smith once played Muhammad Ali in the 2001 film Ali.
Smith issued a formal apology to Rock on Instagram, admitting he had reacted “emotionally” to the joke, but said “violence in all its forms is poisonous and destructive”. Pinkett Smith also called for a “season of healing” following the incident.
Smith’s behaviour has been heavily criticised by his Hollywood contemporaries, including Oscars co-host Wanda Sykes. Speaking on the Ellen DeGeneres show, the actress and comedian said she was “still traumatised” and felt disappointed by the way the show had handled the “sickening” incident.
She also praised Rock’s response after the altercation, revealing he had approached her to apologise about the incident because he knew it would overshadow her presenting efforts alongside Amy Schumer and Regina Hall. “I just felt so awful for my friend Chris. It was sickening, absolutely sickening. I physically felt ill and I’m still a little traumatised by it,” she said.
“And for them to let him stay in that room and enjoy the rest of the show and accept his award, I was like, ‘How gross is this? This is just the wrong message’. You assault somebody, you get escorted out the building and that’s it. But for them to let him continue, I thought was gross.”
Oscars showrunner Will Packer has described the altercation as “a very painful moment for me.”
But others went further, with comedian Jim Carrey calling the Oscars audience “spineless” for applauding Smith’s win following his behaviour.
