While Chris Rock has remained relatively silent since his altercation with Will Smith during Sunday’s broadcast of the Academy Awards, his younger brother Tony has been outspoken on the topic.
Tony Rock appeared to slam Will Smith during a recent comedy show. A man who said he was working backstage on the show caught a few moments of the set on camera and shared them on Instagram.
“If you think you gonna to walk up on this stage, this ain’t the motherf–––king Oscars!” he said, referencing the moment when Smith came onstage and slapped Rock across the face after he made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head. Pinkett Smith has been open about her struggles with alopecia and hair loss).
Shortly after making additional comments on the matter, Tony Rock said, “I didn’t want to start a show like that!”
This is the second time this week that Tony Rock has spoken out about Smith’s actions against his brother. On Monday night, Smith published a lengthy statement on Instagram surrounding his actions, referencing Rock directly when he wrote in part, “I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong.”
The next day, Tony Rock was asked on Twitter by a fan if he “approved” of Smith’s apology to his brother, to which he simply replied, “No.”
In another tweet, Tony Rock said that his brother and Smith had not made up, despite reports that said otherwise.
In the days since the Oscars, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which is the organization that runs the Oscars, condemned Smith’s actions during the ceremony. Days later, the academy’s Board of Governors shared another statement which said Smith could face “suspension, expulsions or other sanctions” for his actions during the ceremony and initiated disciplinary proceedings for violating the standards of conduct.
On Friday, April 1, Smith made the announcement that he would be resigning from the Academy and would “accept any further consequences” from the board.
David Rubin, the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said in a statement to NBC News that Smith’s resignation was “received and accepted” by the Academy, adding, “We will continue to move forward with our disciplinary proceedings against Mr. Smith for violations of the Academy’s Standards of Conduct, in advance of our next scheduled board meeting on April 18.”
Rock, who declined to file a report against Smith despite the show’s producer Will Packer telling ABC News that police were ready to arrest the actor, addressed the incident for the first time on Wednesday during his comedy show in Boston.
“How was your weekend?” the comedian said. “I don’t have a bunch of s--- about what happened, so if you came to hear that, I have a whole show I wrote before this weekend. I’m still kind of processing what happened. So, at some point I’ll talk about that s---. And it will be serious and funny.”
The next night at another show in Boston, the comedian reportedly stopped a heckler from disparaging Smith during the show. People reported that when Rock started his set by talking about the altercation, a fan in the crowd yelled, “F— Will Smith!”
Rock immediately replied, “No, no, no, no, no.”
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