Jada Pinkett-Smith has recalled Chris Rock approaching her following the Oscars slap.
While speaking to People for an interview published on Wednesday, the Gotham star revealed that the comedian attempted an apology immediately after her husband Will Smith slapped him onstage at the 2022 Academy Awards.
“Chris came down to the end of the stage and tried to apologise to me,” Jada told the outlet. “He said, ‘I didn’t mean you any harm.’ I said, ‘I can’t talk about this now, Chris. This is some old s**t.’”
Chris served as a presenter during that year’s Oscars telecast. Before presenting the award for Best Documentary Feature, he made a joke comparing Jada’s hairstyle - a result of her alopecia - to the titular character GI Jane’s shaved head.
In response, Jada’s husband walked onstage and slapped Chris.
Jada continued in her interview, “I thought this was (about) the Oscar 2016 and… their stuff that they had before I even came into the picture in the late ‘80s. I’ve got to leave that to Will and Chris to talk about, but they got their stuff for sure.”
In 2016, Jada publicly protested the Academy Awards ceremony over their failure to nominate a single person of colour for an award. She explained that Chris hosted the ceremony that year and might have been offended by Jada’s statements, leading him to target her in 2022.
“There might be some misunderstanding between Chris and I as far as the 2016 Oscars. I think that he might’ve taken offence, which I meant no harm in offending,” she said. “That wasn’t my intention. But I do think that there’s a big misunderstanding there.”
