Hours after Will Smith took to social media to apologise for slapping Chris Rock during the 2022 Oscars, the stand-up took to the stage to wax poetic over the moment.
Rock compared Smith to former Death Row Records executive and currently incarcerated hothead Suge Knight, reported Page Six.
“Everybody is trying to be a f***ing victim,” Rock, 57, said during a gig at Atlanta’s Fox Theater Friday night.
“If everybody claims to be a victim, then nobody will hear the real victims. Even me getting smacked by Suge Smith … I went to work the next day, I got kids.”
“Anyone who says words hurt has never been punched in the face,” Rock added, according to People.
The comic is currently touring his new material as part of his Ego Death World Tour. He also touched on the subject during recent shows in New Jersey and New York, co-headlined by Kevin Hart.
Smith’s latest apology — as he also apologised to Rock via social media days after the notorious incident — revealed that Rock has refused to speak to him so far about the moment he deemed “unacceptable.”
“I reached out to Chris, and the message that came back is he’s not ready to talk, but when he is, he will reach out,” Smith said in the video posted to YouTube. “I will say to you, Chris, I apologise to you. My behaviour was unacceptable, and I’m here whenever you’re ready to talk.”
Smith, 53, also apologised to Rock’s mother and brother Tony Rock.
“That was one of the things about that moment that I didn’t realise,” he continued. “I wasn’t thinking about how many people got hurt in that moment. I want to apologise to Chris’ mother, to Chris’ family, especially his brother, Tony Rock.”
Tony, who previously worked with Smith on early-2000s sitcom All Of Us, took Smith to task over hitting his brother, leaving the Oscar winner with the impression that their relationship is now “probably irreparable.”
“Disappointing people is my central trauma.
“I hate when I let people down, so it hurts psychologically and emotionally to know that I didn’t live up to people’s image and impression of me,” he further explained. “The work I’m trying to do is I am deeply remorseful, and I’m trying to be remorseful without being ashamed of myself.”
This article originally appeared on Page Six and was reproduced with permission
Originally published as ‘Punched in the face’: Chris Rock reacts to Will Smith’s apology
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