Chris Rock will talk about Will Smith slap — but it won’t come cheap
Chris Rock joked with a London audience that being walloped onstage by Will Smith at March’s Oscars may have left his ears ringing, but he wasn’t slapped silly.
“I’m OK, if anybody was wondering — got most of my hearing back,” he reportedly told fans at the Royal Albert Hall.
The Telegraph reports that Rock then made clear on Thursday that he wouldn’t be talking any more about “the bulls--t” that occurred between him and Smith at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre where he was struck with an open hand while presenting at 94th Academy Awards. But “eventually,” Rock said, when he is ready to tell his side of the story, it’ll be for Netflix, where that long-awaited rebuttal will likely result in a big payday.
“Your tickets were expensive, but not that expensive,” he told his audience.
During a standup appearance days after the Smith incident, Rock told a Boston, Mass., audience he hadn’t had time to process what just happened. The only other time Rock is on record addressing the matter came during a performance by Dave Chapelle in Los Angeles where Rock was a guest when a seemingly disturbed audience member attacked Chapelle.
Rock joined Chapelle onstage and asked, “Was that Will Smith?”
Netflix announced signed a deal with Rock in 2016 that paid $40 million for two shows, according to Variety. He had been away from stand-up comedy for eight years before recording material for one special that ran in 2018 and a follow-up that streamed in 2021.
