Famed comedians Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock slammed disgraced actor Will Smith while performing together in the U.K. over the actor’s attack on Rock during this year’s Oscars.
“F*** your hostage video,” Rock said during a portion of his stand up routine in reference to the apology that Smith gave over the incident. “Yes, that s*** hurt. He played Ali. I can’t even play Floyd Mayweather.”
Rock was followed by Chappelle, who also commented on the incident, saying, “That was some scary s***.”
“A lot of people forget who Will Smith is,” Chappelle continued, noting Smith’s upbringing in west Philadelphia. “Then 10 minutes before he was about to get the biggest award … he acted like he was back in Philadelphia.”
Earlier this month, Chappelle asked Rock on the stage at Liverpool’s M&S Bank Arena in the U.K. if that slap hurt, to which Rock replied, “G*****n right … the motherf***er hit me over a bulls*** joke, the nicest joke I ever told.”
“Will did the impression of a perfect person for 30 years, and he ripped his mask off and showed us he was as ugly as the rest of us,” Chappelle said. “Whatever the consequences are … I hope he doesn’t put his mask back on again, and lets his real face breathe. I see myself in both men.”
Smith released a nearly six-minute video earlier this summer apologizing to Rock for the incident.
The video showed Smith, wearing a ball cap and golf shirt and seated in what appears to be his home, answering questions from fans and critics on the internet. In a sometimes halting voice, Smith expresses deep remorse for the March 27 incident that has likely cost him his place atop Tinseltown.
“It’s been a minute …,” text on the video begins. “Over the last few months, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and personal work.”
Smith then reads and answers questions about the shocking incident, in which he charged the stage at the Academy Awards show and slapped the comedian after he had made a joke at the expense of Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. Minutes later, Smith was awarded a “Best Actor” Oscar for his role as tennis patriarch Richard Williams.
“Why didn’t you apologize to Chris in your acceptance speech?” Smith begins, reading a question.
“I was fogged out by that point,” he says. “It’s all fuzzy. I’ve reached out to Chris and the message that came back is that he’s not ready to talk and when he is, he will reach out.”
Smith apologizes to Rock, his family and in particular, the comedian’s mother, who he says he saw in an interview and realized how much the incident had hurt her.
“I just didn’t realize, and you know, I wasn’t thinking about how many people got hurt in that moment,” Smith says in the video. “So, I want to apologize to Chris’s mother. I want to apologize to Chris’s family, specifically [Chris Rock’s younger brother] Tony Rock. You know, we had a great relationship. You know, Tony Rock was my man. And this is probably irreparable.”
Another question Smith addresses in the video is whether his wife put him up to attacking Rock.
“No. I made a choice on my own, from my own experiences, and my history with Chris,” Smith says. “Jada had nothing to do with it. I’m sorry, babe, and I want to say sorry to my kids and my family for the heat that I brought on all of us.”
Greg Wilson contributed to this report.