Chris Rock has spoken publicly for the first time about his run-in with Will Smith at the Oscars 2022, this for making a joke about his head Jada Pinkett’s shaved head.
The comedian, aged 57, had a show this 30 March at The Wilbur Theater in Boston at night, where he addressed the ordeal.
First, Rock was received with a standing ovation and then started his monologue asking his audience: “How was your weekend?”, which was reciprocated with laughter.
Next, he thanked the audience for the thunderous applause with which they received him, but quickly dashed the hopes of anyone who I thought I was going to talk at length about the incident.
“Sit down, I have jokes to tell and now my eyes are blurring. If you came to hear that, no… I had like a whole program that I wrote before this weekend”, he pointed out.
And although he did not have much to say at the time, he did clarify that he will probably the situation further into the future.
“I am still processing the What happened. At some point I’ll talk about that shit, and it’ll be serious and fun”
Chris Rock
It should be noted that ticket prices for his show skyrocketed after Smith took the awards stage and slapped Rock on live television.
StubHub, a ticket exchange and resale company, said it saw times more daily sales for Rock’s shows in the days after the Oscars incident, surpassing the cumulative sales of the comedian’s tour throughout the month of March.
On said resale platform, tickets for the first show of this Wednesday they had a price that ranged between $825 and $1,705, much more than the original $51 to $51 for those that were sold on the venue’s website, as reported by Forbes on its site.
On the other hand, Chris made these statements only once Hours after it emerged that Will Smith had refused to leave the awards ceremony after Academy President David Rubin and CEO Dawn Hudson asked him to leave the Dolby Theater for having violated the organization’s code of conduct.
“Both Rubin as Hudson they were furious with the actor and there were many shouts and heated conversations behind the scenes with his representative, ”two sources assured the TMZ portal.
After beating Chris Rock, Will Smith received the Oscar for Best Actor for his work in “King Richard” to a standing ovation from his industry peers.
However, this recognition is now in danger because the Academy Board has initiated disciplinary proceedings against him for having engaged in inappropriate physical contact, abusive or threatening behavior and for having compromised the integrity of the organization.