Four years after Will Smith slapped him on live television, Chris Rock says the only thing that would bring him back to the Academy Awards is a nomination, and he does not expect to get one.
Rock, 61, laid out his position in a Variety interview published Tuesday while promoting his new film "Misty Green," which he directed. The comedian and former two-time Oscars host has stayed away from the ceremony since Smith struck him onstage during the 2022 broadcast, and he made clear he is not planning a return trip.
Rock put it bluntly, as Page Six reported:
"I'm not getting nominated. The only way I'll go back is if I'm nominated, and I'm not getting nominated."
He added: "And that's OK. We'll deal with that if it happens. Like, let's manage expectations."
The "Saturday Night Live" alum hosted the Oscars in 2005 and again in 2016. He was presenting an award, not hosting, the night Smith walked onto the stage and hit him after Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith's shaved head. Pinkett Smith has dealt with alopecia for years. Smith went on to win the best actor award for "King Richard" later that same evening.
Smith apologized to Rock on social media the day after the ceremony. His post read, in part:
"I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness."
The Academy banned Smith, 57, from the Oscars and all Academy events for a decade. Rock, meanwhile, addressed the incident on his own terms, in a 2023 Netflix comedy special where he insisted he was not a victim.
"You will never see me on Oprah or Gayle crying. Never going to happen... I took that hit like Pacquiao. I took it like motherf*****g Pacquiao. Did it hurt? Yeah, motherf*****, it hurt."
That was the last time Rock spoke about the slap at any length before the Variety interview. Asked how he feels about it four years later, he said he wishes "nothing would have happened." But he kept the focus tight, refusing to let the subject overshadow his film or his lead actress, Rosalind Eleazar.
"And also, I don't want to say anything that takes any attention away from Rosalind and how good she is in this movie."
Rock was equally direct about whether he would ever host the ceremony again. He did not rule it out entirely, but he came close.
"I'm not going to say never, but my time might have passed, honestly."
He went out of his way to praise the people who have taken the stage since he left it, saying that when others are asked about hosting, the speculation itself is disrespectful to the current hosts. He named Conan O'Brien and Nikki Glaser specifically.
"When people answer those questions, they're being disrespectful to the people that got the gig. They have great hosts. Conan O'Brien is amazing. Nikki Glaser is amazing on the Golden Globes."
Rock also waved off any suggestion that the slap should still dominate public conversation about him. He framed it in terms that had nothing to do with Hollywood politics.
"It's a crazy world. We walk by homeless people. There's all sorts of s*** going on right now. Me having a bad day is not the biggest, it's not that important."
Whatever else the 2022 Oscars incident revealed, about celebrity entitlement, about the Academy's inability to maintain order in its own house, about a culture that treated the man who got hit as the one who owed an explanation, Rock's posture has been consistent. He did not play victim. He did not launch a media tour. He made a joke about it onstage, made a special about it on Netflix, and went back to making movies.
Smith got the ban. Rock got the questions. Four years later, he is still the one being asked when he will come back, and still the one saying he does not need to.
There is something to admire in a man who absorbs a public humiliation, refuses to milk it, and simply goes back to work. Hollywood could use more of that.
