“When he slapped Chris, he slapped all of us,” she stated.
Chris Rock's mother, Rosalie "Rose" Rock has opened up about watching her son get slapped on live television. She called out Will Smith for hitting her son on the Oscar stage.
Speaking to a South Carolina TV station, WIS of Columbia she said, “When he slapped Chris, he slapped all of us,” and added, “He really slapped me.” The slap came as a shock to all those who were tuned in to the awards show that took place on March 27. A lot has happened since and Smith has been disciplined by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences in addition to having many of his projects stalled.
“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,” Rose Rock said in the interview. She was referring to Jada Pinkett Smith who was the target of Chris Rock's joke on stage. He joked about Pinkett, in reference to her hair, saying "Jada I love you...G.I Jane 2 can't wait to see it." Pinkett has in the past opened up about her struggle with alopecia, an autoimmune disorder that causes sudden hair loss. At the moment, Pinkett could be seen rolling her eyes at Chris' joke and was later seen laughing after her husband hit him.
The 77-year-old mother of ten also added, "You did a slap, but so many things could've happened from that," she explained. "Chris could've stepped back and fallen. You really could've been taken out in handcuffs. You didn't think." She has never met Smith and if given the chance to speak to him she has "no idea" what she would say to him except: "What in the world were you thinking?" She also believed when she initially saw the altercation that it was probably a staged event "until he started with the obscenities."
Such a pleasure meeting comedian Chris Rock’s mom, Rose Rock, in the @wis10 studio today! Mama Rock sat down for an exclusive interview with @BillieJeanTV about why she’s back in her home state of SC this weekend, and she even gave her thoughts & reaction to the Oscars slap. pic.twitter.com/Cl0IKZv2a8
— Dominic Brown WIS (@DominicBrownTV) April 23, 2022
"I was not [at the Oscars] this time," she said about how she was unable to be there for her son. "I couldn't reach out to him at that point, there was nothing to do and that's a hard thing for a mother. No matter how old they are, they're still your babies." Rock chose not to press charges and Rose shared how she was "really, really proud" of how the 57-year-old comedian managed to handle the situation. After being slapped, he continued to present the award and the show went on.
"Chris was so happy to be giving the award to Questlove for his Oscar and no one heard his speech," Rose noted. "No one was able to just be in the moment, because everybody was just sitting there like, ‘What just happened?'" She also expressed disappointment that Smith did not reach out after the event but is leaving it to the men to reconcile if they choose to. She also provided an update about how her son is doing and shared, "He is doing well. Like he said, he's still processing it because that's not something you expect."
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