Chris Rock Thinks Will Smith Including Nod to Oscars Slap in ‘Bad Boys 4’ Is a ‘Cheap Stunt’
Will Smith claims he’s a changed man since slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars in 2022 and even seemingly referenced the infamous slap in his latest movie Bad Boys 4. However, the addition to the script has reopened old wounds with Chris, who’s not buying Will’s reinvention act one bit.
“Chris thinks it’s a pretty cheap stunt and he’s telling people how lame he finds it,” a source exclusively tells In Touch. “It’s a classic case of Will making light of a horrific situation. Will’s playing the victim. It was the lowest point of his career, but that’s no excuse.”
While Chris has made a point to keep a “low profile” since the headline-making moment, he “finds Will’s attention seeking nauseating,” according to the source. “It aggravates him that people keep bringing it up. He suffered as much as Will has and now Will has turned it into a funny scene in his movie. As far as Chris is concerned, it’s more proof that Will’s a total piece of work who deserves all the crap he’s gotten. Chris isn’t going to let it go. If there’s a way to get back at Will down the line, he’ll take it.”
The slap happened while Chris, 59, was presenting the award for Best Documentary Feature at the 2022 Oscars. Will, 55, was sitting in the front row with wife Jada Pinkett-Smith, as he was nominated for Best Actor at the awards ceremony (he won the award later that night). The comedian used his time on stage to crack a joke at Jada’s expense, comparing her to G.I. Jane because of her shaved head.
“Jada, I love you,” Chris said. “G.I. Jane 2, can’t wait to see it.” Jada, 52, suffers from alopecia and the joke infuriated Will, who got up out of his seat and approached Chris on the stage. He then slapped Chris across the face in the middle of the live broadcast and told him, “Keep my wife’s name out your f--king mouth.”
Will addressed the situation for the first time in July 2022, months after the March 27 broadcast. “I’ve reached out to Chris, and the message that came back is he’s not ready to talk and, when he is, he will reach out,” the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star shared. He also said he was “apologizing” to Chris and added, “There is no part of me that thinks that was the right way to behave in that moment.”
More than two years later, Will turned the slap on himself in Bad Boys: Ride or Die, which was released on June 7. In one scene of the movie, his character is having a panic attack, so Martin Lawrence’s character begins repeatedly slapping him.
The film’s directors addressed the similarities between the slap in the movie and what happened between Chris and Will at the Oscars. “I think, you know, if you watch the movie, you see that there are some parallels between what’s happening in the movie and real life,” they said. “You know, there’s – it’s almost like a meta experience that Will, in the character of Mike Lowrey, goes through with some themes.”
