The public may have moved on from Slap-gate at this year's Oscars, but Chris Rock's mother is not quite ready to forgive and forget the moment Will Smith physically assaulted her son in front of millions of viewers.
Rose Rock, a motivational speaker and mother of Chris Rock has now come forward with harsh words for Smith after he famously smacked the comedian across the face onstage at the 94th Academy Awards for an insensitive comment directed at Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
Smith has since apologized to the stand-up comedian on social media for his violent behavior.
While Rock was presenting for Best Documentary at the ceremony, he referenced actress Demi Moore from the 1997 movie, G.I. Jane, to comment on Pinkett Smith's baldness.
Pinkett Smith had been open about her struggle with alopecia–a hair loss condition.
For the first time since the incident, Rock's mom spoke up about it and didn't hold back during a recent interview with South Carolina news station WIS-TV.
She told WIS’s Billie Jean Shaw:
“When Will slapped Chris, he slapped all of us. He really slapped me."
"Because when you hurt my child, you hurt me.”
Like many viewers, the Rock matriarch thought the altercation was staged until "he [WIll] started using obscenities."
After Smith returned to his seat, he bellowed at the comedian and ordered him to "Keep my wife's name out of your f'kin' mouth."
Rose Rock continued:
“You reacted to your wife giving you the side-eye, and you went up, and you made her day because she was bowled over laughing when it happened."
She added that her son was excited to give the Best Documentary award to Questlove, but Smith took that moment away from them.
"No one even heard his speech," Rock said of Questlove–who reportedly said he wasn't "present at all" when he went up to accept the award.
Rock added:
"No one was able to just be in the moment because everyone was sitting there like, ‘what just happened?’"
She said the only thing she could do from home was to reach out and tell her son how proud she was of the way he maintained his composure after the confrontation.
Rock said any number of things could have happened as a result of the assault–including the possibility of her son stepping back and falling or Smith being "taken out in handcuffs.”
In the wake of the incident, The Academy declared Smith–who announced his resignation from the Academy–would be banned from attending any "Academy events or programs, in person or virtually" for ten years.
When asked what she thought of the Academy's decision, Rock said of Smith's Best Actor win for King Richard:
“I wouldn’t take his award away, and I don’t see any good way they could have taken him out without disrupting.”
However, she was disappointed that Smith didn't personally reach out to the comedian to apologize directly, saying, “I feel really bad that he never apologized."
She clarified:
"I mean his people wrote up a piece saying I apologize to Chris Rock, but you see something like that is personal, you reach out.”
@GregAbbott_TX/X
