Chris Rock’s Mom Criticizes Will Smith Over Oscars Slap: ‘You Hurt Me’

Chris Rock is finally starting to speak up and joke about the infamous Oscar moment where Will Smith slapped him. His few words on the matter have only mentioned it in passing, promising that an honest response will come soon enough. The same isn’t valid for his family members, including his mother, Rose.

In an interview with WIS 10, Rose Rock spoke bluntly about the incident, what she would say to Will Smith, and some criticism for the Academy for their punishment decision. “I told someone, when Will slapped Chris, he slapped all of us, but he really slapped me,” Rock said. “When you hurt my child, you hurt me.”

“I have no idea what I would say other than, ‘What in the world were you thinking?’ Because you did a slap, but so many things could have happened. Chris could have stepped back and fallen,” she continued. “You really could have gotten taken out in handcuffs. You didn’t think. 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 was also critical of Smith’s apology to her son, claiming the King Richard actor went about wrong at every turn. “I feel really bad that he never apologized,” Rock said. “His people wrote up a piece and said, ‘I apologize to Chris Rock,’ but something like that is personal. You reach out.”

Rock added that she was proud of how her son reacted to the situation, referencing how the comedian kept composure and still navigated the segment without many reactions to the hit itself. She was critical of the Academy’s punishment against Smith, though she made clear that his statue shouldn’t be taken away. “What does that mean? You don’t even go every year,” she says regarding the 10-year Oscar ban. “I wouldn’t take his award away, and I don’t see any good way they could have taken him out without disrupting.”

Chris Rock’s mother is not the first member of his family to speak out. The comedian’s brother Kenny Rock has also spoken in defense of his brother, speaking with the LA Times after the incident. “It eats at me watching it over and over again because you’ve seen a loved one being attacked and there’s nothing you can do about it,” he said. “Every time I’m watching the videos, it’s like a rendition that just keeps going over and over in my head. My brother was no threat to him and you just had no respect for him at that moment. You just belittled him in front of millions of people that watch the show.”

He also challenged Smith to a boxing match, though you have to think that’s just an attempt to capitalize on the attention. There’s also the eventual reaction from Chris Rock himself yet to come, which is the real main event people want.