There are two schools of thought for who’s to blame for Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Academy Awards. Some people blame Rock for making an insensitive joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s medical condition. Others insist physical violence is never appropriate.
For his part, Chris has remained mostly quiet in the wake of the drama, only saying that he was “still processing” what happened. Even though the 57-year-old comedian refuses to lay the blame on Smith, his younger brother Kenny Rock is more than happy to do it for him. The 42-year-old actor spoke with the Los Angeles Times about how it’s been affecting him.
Kenny said he wasn’t watching the Oscars that night and had first heard about #slapgate after being contacted by a friend while riding the A train in Brooklyn. He recalled trying to watch the video immediately but failing because he couldn’t get reception. Since then, he’s rewatched the video more than 20 times.
“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,” Kenny told the publication.
“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 continued.
Like many others, Kenny also doesn’t believe Chris knew Jada had alopecia, or he wouldn’t have made the joke in the first place.
“The joke was funny. It wasn’t hilarious funny, but I know that if he knew that she had alopecia … he wouldn’t make a joke about that. But he didn’t know,” the actor insisted.
Further, Kenny does not accept Will’s public apology to Chris.
“I might have looked at it differently had he initially apologized when he got on the stage and cried and accepted the award, but he didn’t, so, right there that tells me that it is something else,” Kenny said of Will’s words.
“No, I don’t accept it because I don’t think it was genuine,” he went on. “I think his publicist and the people that work under him probably advised him to do that.”
Kenny also pointed out that Will did not reach out to Rock’s family to apologize personally.
As for what should have happened that night, the performer believes Will didn’t suffer appropriate consequences for his actions. Kenny said the complete lack of action following the slap is inexcusable.
“He should have been escorted out of there,” he said. “I hold them accountable for that. He could have went up there and did anything you wanted to my brother. It could have been much worse than what he did.”
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