Rose Rock, the mother of comedian Chris Rock, has opened up about Will Smith’s very public assault on her son at the Oscars.
“I told someone, when Will slapped Chris, he slapped all of us, but he really slapped me,” Rose Rock told WIS. “When you hurt my child, you hurt me.”
She also shared what she would say if she came face to face with Smith.
“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. 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.”
Her son, Chris Rock, has said very little publicly about the incident.
An audio clip circulated on social media, where he stated that he is “still processing” what happened to him.
The slap has divided not only Hollywood but the industry as a whole. Some have defended Smith’s actions, insisting that he had a right to defend his wife, while others believe that violence is never the answer.
Rose Rock doesn’t think much of Smith’s 10-year ban from the Academy.
“What does that mean? You don’t even go every year.”
She doesn’t believe Smith’s public apology to her son was genuine. “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.”
