Will Smith shocked the world when he rose from his seat, marched onto the stage after Chris Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith‘s lack of hair, and proceeded to slap him while on stage during the Oscars on March 28. Now Tyler Perry is clearing the air.
Since that moment, Will has announced that Chris’s joke was “too much for him to bear” as Jade was diagnosed with alopecia in 2018, adding how he “reacted emotionally.”
Tyler Perry Reveals Exactly What He Discussed With Will Smith After The Infamous Chris Rock Slap
And while most of the audience remained seated in shock, Tyler Perry, Denzel Washington, and Bradley Cooper were some of the first famous folks seen comforting Will during a commercial break immediately after the incident.
However, Tyler, who is speaking on the subject for the first time, is revealing what exactly was said during the conversation.
While in a conversation with Gayle King at the Tribeca Film Festival this past Monday, Tyler recalled the conversation and clarified how he was not “comforting” Will, but trying to de-esclate the situation.
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“There’s a difference between comforting and de-escalating, that’s number one,” the filmmaker clarified, before going on to detail exactly what was said by him and Will.
“When we walked over to him, he was devastated. He couldn’t believe what happened,” Tyler recalled. “He couldn’t believe he did it.”
He went on: “I’m looking at this man in his eyes going, ‘What are you doing? This is your night.’ And to get all the way to this moment, winning an Oscar, that was one of the crowning moments of his career that he wanted so desperately, and to have something like that happen…”
However, as Tyler is friends with both men, he also made sure to check in on Chris just after.
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“I was there close up, I left early to go and check on Chris because it was wrong in no uncertain terms … I made sure I said that to Will,” he said, before going on to praise Chris’s handling of the situation.
“Trust me, as painful as it was for all of us in the room, it was as painful for Chris, who was a pure champion for the way he handled it,” Tyler said, adding that he could also recognize that it was “extremely painful” for Will too.
“He was completely wrong for what he did. But something triggered him — that is so out of everything he is,” he said of Will.
Tyler admitted how being friends with both Chris and Will has been “very difficult” for him to navigate. We bet!