Chris Rock's Brother Responds to Will Smith's Apology For Oscars Slap
Academy Awards host Chris Rock's brother Kenny Rock responds to Will Smith's Oscars slap apology. The 2022 Academy Awards could have been remembered for many reasons. The Power of the Dog's Jane Campion won Best Director, marking the first time women have won that category in back-to-back years. CODA actor Troy Kotsur became the second Deaf actor in history to win an Oscar. Smith himself finally won his first Academy Award, 20 years after his first nomination. However, as many now know, all of these events were overshadowed when Smith hopped up on stage and slapped Rock across the face after the Oscars presenter cracked a joke about Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, and her hair loss. Pinkett Smith's shaved head is related to her alopecia diagnosis, explaining his anger, but many have voiced their disapproval of the actor's violent response in the ceremony's aftermath.
Smith did eventually apologize for the incident. He first apologized to the Academy for his actions when he took the stage later that night to accept his Best Actor Oscar for King Richard, though he specifically did not apologize to Rock. Later, however, Smith did release another public apology in which he apologized to Rock explicitly. Despite these public displays of contrition, the situation has yet to go away for Smith. Many of his upcoming movies have been put on hold, and several celebrities have come forward to express their opinion on the incident, including King Richard subject Richard Williams, the man who Smith won his Oscar for portraying.
In a recent interview with the LA Times, Rock's brother Kenny gives his own opinion on the situation, specifically on Smith's apology. In regards to the actual slap, he expresses how difficult the footage is to watch, because he is seeing "a loved one being attacked and there’s nothing you can do about it." When asked about the apology Smith gave his brother, Kenny says he does not accept it. For him, given that Smith did not mention Rock when he gave his tearful apology during his Oscar acceptance speech, his second apology does not seem genuine. See his full quote below:
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. [...] 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.
Currently, whether the Rock family accepts the apology is the least of Smith's issues. The Academy has launched an official review of Smith's actions and whether they need to take disciplinary action. However, one of the potential consequences would have been to revoke Smith's Academy membership, which the actor has already taken care of himself. Smith resigned from the Academy earlier this week in a written statement to the organization, in which once again apologizes both to them and to Rock for his actions.
Rock's brother believes these are not genuine apologies and instead something done on the recommendation of a publicist, and it remains unclear whether there is anything Smith can do to redeem himself in his eyes. Kenny Rock also maintains that the comedian would never have made the joke if he knew Pinkett Smith had alopecia, though this is somewhat hard to believe, given her transparency on the issue. Ultimately, it perhaps doesn't matter who was in the right and who was in the wrong - the event was a completely inappropriate display, and has overshadowed some truly exciting accomplishments that were celebrated at the 2022 Academy Awards.
Source: LA Times