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In a recent tell-all interview, Jada Pinkett Smith revealed — among many other things, including that the pair have been separated since 2016 — that she initially thought Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Academy Awards was a skit.
According to Pinkett Smith, her first reaction to Smith slapping Rock on the Oscars stage was to assume that it was some sort of planned sketch.
She would quickly learn, however — when “Will started to walk back to his chair” — that her husband (?) had legitimately just walked on stage and open-hand slapped a famous stand-up comedian for making a joke about her hair.
“I thought, ‘This is a skit.’ ” Like many people watching the incident unfold on live TV, she didn’t believe it was real at first. “I was like, ‘There’s no way that Will hit him,’ ” Jada, 52, recalls. “It wasn’t until Will started to walk back to his chair that I even realized it wasn’t a skit.” The first words she uttered to Will once they were alone after the show were “Are you okay?” [via People Magazine]
As a result of the infamous slap, which happened on the same night that Smith took home Best Actor for his performance in King Richard, the 55-year-old was barred from attending the event for a decade.
Since then, Smith has starred in just one film Emancipation. He’s also set to reprise his role as Mike Lowrey in a fourth Bad Boys movie. Furthermore, reports indicate that Smith and Rock have yet to speak to each other.
As for Rock, he has since addressed the moment during his stand-up act, including one that debuted on Netflix in the first-ever live event in the history of the streaming service.