Chris Rock’s mother has said that it felt like Will Smith physically hurt her when the actor slapped the comedian at the Oscars.
During last month’s Oscars, Smith jumped up on stage to slap Chris after the comedian joked about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved haircut.
Speaking toWIS TV, Rose Rock said that, like many people, she had initially believed the altercation to be staged, but realised it wasn’t when Smith yelled at Rock to “keep my wife’s name out of your f***ing mouth”.
“When he slapped Chris, he slapped all of us,” Rose said. “He really slapped me, because when you hurt my child, you hurt me.”
She continued: “You reacted to your wife giving you the side-eye, and you went and made her day because she was mulled over laughing when it happened.”
Pinkett Smith’s shaved haircut is due to her alopecia, with the actor seen rolling her eyes at Chris’s joke.
However, Rose said that Smith’s behaviour completely overshadowed his subsequent win for Best Actor for King Richard.
“No one heard his speech,” she said. “No one was able to just be in the moment because everyone was sitting there like, ‘What just happened?’”
Following the altercation, Smith apologised and resigned from the Academy on 1 April.
On 8 April, the Academy moved to ban Smith from Oscars ceremonies for the next 10 years.
Pinkett Smith addressed the incident in the trailer for the new series of her Facebook Watch series Red Table Talk, saying: “Considering all that has happened in the last few weeks, the Smith family has been focusing on deep healing.”
