Chris Rock Turned Down The Chance To Host The Oscars And His Reasoning Makes Complete Sense

Chris Rock Turned Down The Chance To Host The Oscars And His Reasoning Makes Complete Sense
newsfinale.comMar 13, 2023 12:25 PM
Will Smith tears up at the oscars after slapping Chris Rock
Chris Rock has been back in the headlines recently. On March 4, 2023, his brand new comedy special Selective Outrage landed on Netflix. In the set, he spoke about multiple issues, but what really stood out was that he finally vocalized his thoughts on the Oscars slap incident with Will Smith. The comedian took aim at Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett, who was at the center of the entire debacle in the first place.

One of the controversial things that Rock said was in reference to Smith’s historical thriller film Emancipation. “My whole life I’ve rooted for this ***,” he said. “And now, I watch Emancipation just to see him get whooped. Got me rooting for Massa, OK? Hit him again, Massa! Hit him again! You missed a spot!” The bit was not very well received, and Netflix eventually had to edit it out of the production.

On his part, Smith is already serving his sentence for his actions, as he was immediately banned from any Oscars-related events for ten years. The 95th Academy Awards ceremony was held on the night of March 13th, 2023, and marked the first awards event that the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star was barred from attending.

Rock is free to be part of any future Oscars events, whether as a nominee, host or presenter. For the moment, however, he appears to have completely ruled out the possibility of hosting again.

Chris Rock Was A Regular Oscars Host

Until the episode involving Will Smith,Chris Rock was something of a native at the Academy Awards; the comedian had hosted the ceremony three times before. His very first Oscars gig was in 2005. It would be more than a decade before he returned to that particular stage, as the host of the 2016 event.

It was this second time that Rock actually kicked off his beef with Jada Pinkett Smith, who had boycotted the ceremony alongside her husband for a lack of diversity in the nominations. “Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties. I wasn’t invited!” he joked. “Oh, that’s not an invitation I would turn down!”

Rock was the Oscars host again in 2021 and then 2022, and — according to him — was offered the chance to return for a third year in a row. He reportedly revealed this to an audience during a show he did in Phoenix shortly after the incident. “Chris said he was asked to host next year’s Academy Awards and that he refused the offer,” an attendee told ET Online in August 2022.

Why Did Chris Rock Refuse To Host The Oscars Again?

According to the source from Chris Rock’s show in Phoenix, the comedian suggested that he did not wish to revisit the trauma of a fellow artist assaulting him in front of the eyes of the entire world. He even likened any potential return to asking the murdered wife of O.J. Simpson to go back to the restaurant where she had her final meal before her death.

“Chris joked that returning to the Oscars would be like returning to the scene of the crime and said that it would be similar to asking Nicole Brown Simpson to go back to the Italian restaurant where she left her glasses,” the eyewitness said to ET. The joke itself received some backlash, with some finding it to be in bad taste.

In Selective Outrage, Rock also added to the notion that he was not even close to moving on from the incident involving Will Smith. “People were like, ‘Did it hurt?’… It still hurts! I got Summertime still ringing in my ears,” he said.

Chris Rock Also Turned Down An Interview With Oprah After The Oscars Incident

It is not possible to know the extent of the psychological impact of the 2022 Oscars incident on Chris Rock. His actions — both of commission and omission — in the aftermath suggest that it was significant. To start with, he left L.A. for a while and retreated to his home in Alpine, New Jersey.

With the next Oscars still many months away, he then reportedly refused to return as host. According to the source who was in the audience at his Phoenix show, he apparently also said no to an offer to feature in a Super Bowl commercial. Rock was also said to have been given the opportunity to be interviewed by Oprah, and he also rejected that.

“During the evening, he did describe that he declined an offer to go onto Oprah to do a sit-down interview and even a Super Bowl commercial with Will Smith himself,” another attendee of the Phoenix show said. “He said, ‘You are not gonna see me on any interviews crying my heart out about this. I am not going to be a victim.” Rock also echoed similar sentiments in Selective Outrage.

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