Chris Rock blasts Will Smith during comedy special: 'I'm not a victim, baby!'
Chris Rock has finally addressed Will Smith slapping him at the 2022 Academy Awards.
During the Oscars ceremony in March 2022, the King Richard actor walked onto the stage and slapped the comedian after he compared his wife Jada Pinkett Smith - who has the medical condition alopecia - to G.I. Jane.
While Chris has remained tight-lipped about the incident for nearly a year, during his Selective Outrage special staged in Baltimore, Maryland for Netflix on Saturday night, he didn't hold back on his thoughts about Will's shocking behaviour.
"They say, 'words hurt.' Anybody who says 'words hurt' has never been punched in the face," he joked at the beginning of the set, before going on to note that he has no desire to discuss the incident on a talk show. "I'm not a victim, baby. You will never see me on Oprah (Winfrey) or Gayle (King) crying. You will never see it... It's never going to happen. F**k that s**t, I took that s**t like (Manny) Pacquiao. Will Smith is significantly bigger than me. We are not the same size. Will Smith does movies with his shirt off. You've never seen me do a movie with my shirt off... Will Smith played Muhammad Ali in a movie. You think I auditioned for that part? I played Pookie in New Jack City. I played a piece of corn in Pootie Tang."
Elsewhere, Chris claimed Will "practices selective outrage" as a result of his reaction to Jada revealing during an episode of Red Table Talk in July 2020 that she had an "entanglement" with August Alsina in 2016 while she was separated from the Men in Black actor.
"Everybody who really knows, knows I had nothing to do with that s**t. I didn't have any 'entanglements.' His wife was f**king her son's friend. I normally would not talk about this s**t... I have no idea why two talented people would do something that f**king lowdown," the 58-year-old continued. "We've all been cheated on. Everybody in here been cheated on. None of us has ever been interviewed by the person that cheated on us on television...She hurt him way more than he hurt me."
In addition, Chris alleged that he attempted to call Will after the episode aired.
"Everybody in the world called him a b**ch. I tried to call that man and give him my condolences. He didn't pick up for me," the comedian stated. "Everybody called him a b**ch...and who does he hit? Me."
And as for why he didn't retaliate to the slap, Chris argued that it was because of the way he was "raised".
"Because I got parents, that's why. I was raised. You know what my parents taught me? Don't fight in front of white people," he concluded.
Will has mostly steered clear of the public eye since the incident. He apologised to Academy members and his peers during his acceptance speech for Best Actor at the film event and followed it up with a lengthy apology on Instagram the next day.
The 54-year-old subsequently resigned from the Academy and was banned from attending the Oscars for 10 years.
