Leslie Jones says her friend Chris Rock sought advice after he was slapped by Will Smith at the 2022 Oscars.
“That shit was humiliating,” she said People. “It really affected him. People need to understand that his daughters, his parents saw him. He had to go consult his daughters. (Rock shares two adult daughters – Lola, 21, and Zahra, 19 – with ex-wife Malaak Compton-Rock.)
Jones, who was watching the show from home that evening, said she was “furious” to have seen the incident happen on live television.
“You didn’t know I was going to jump in my car and drive over there,” she said. “I was so angry on so many levels.”
She added that Smith, who won the best actor Oscar for his role in King Richard moments later, he should have tried to make it up to Rock when he accepted his reward. While Smith apologized to the Academy and his fellow nominees in his acceptance speech, he didn’t say he was directly sorry to Rock.
The shocking moment at the March 2022 Academy Awards came after Rock made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, before presenting the award for best documentary feature. Rock suggested that Pinkett Smith was preparing to film a sequel to GI Jeanne – which apparently referred to the actress’ shaved head. (Pinkett Smith has spoken openly about her hair loss due to alopecia.)
Smith came on stage and slapped Rock. Back in his seat, he yelled at Rock, “Keep my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth!” »
A day later, he apologized directly to Rock in an Instagram post. He issued a second apology via video message in July 2022.
“There’s no part of me that thinks that was the right way to behave at that time,” he said.
After the incident, Smith announced that he was resigning from the Academy and was banned from participating in Academy events for 10 years. He is, however, still eligible for future Oscar nominations and wins, and will retain the Oscar he won at the 2022 ceremony.
Jones said she thought Smith could have “settled” the situation that night by accepting her Oscar. She suggests he might have said something like, “I shouldn’t have done that.” Get Chris out. I can’t accept the Oscar right now because it was really bad. »
For his part, Rock criticized Smith earlier this year in his live Netflix special, Chris Rock: Selective outrage!
“Will Smith practices selective outrage,” Rock told the audience. “Outrage because everyone knows what happened. Anyone who really knows knows that I had nothing to do with this shit. I had no tangles.
He continued: “His wife was fucking her son’s friend. OK, now normally I wouldn’t talk about this shit, but for some reason these niggas are putting this shit on the internet. I don’t understand why two talented people would do something so lowly. What is this mess ? And we have all been deceived. Everyone here has been deceived. None of us have ever been interviewed by the person who cheated on us on TV.
“She hurt him more than he hurt me.” Everyone called him a bitch. I tried to call this bastard, I tried to call this man and give him my condolences, he wouldn’t pick up for me. …Everyone called him a bitch, and who did he hit? Me – one – one he knows he could beat. This is some bitch bullshit.
Rock wrote the foreword to Jones’ new memoir, titled Leslie fucking Jones. The two actors met in the mid-1990s and have been friends ever since.
“He’s like my brother,” Jones said of Rock, who also convinced her to audition (successfully) for Saturday Night Live. She added: “He is always there to give me the perfect advice when I need it. »
