Comedian Tony Rock, the younger brother of Chris Rock, has accused Will Smith of lying about reaching out to his brother following the infamous slap at the 94th Academy Awards. In a recent appearance on Big Boy’s Neighborhood, Tony claimed that Smith's statement that Chris was not ready to talk after the slap was untrue.
Smith had previously revealed in a video that he had reached out to Chris, but the message that came back was that the comedian was not ready to talk. However, Tony alleged that he knew that to be untrue and that Chris was willing to talk, Complex reports. “That wasn’t true, that wasn’t true,” he said. “I think like, two nights later, he said, ‘I reached out to Chris, and he didn’t want to talk.’ That wasn’t true.”
Tony Rock says Will Smith never reached out to Chris Rock after the Oscar night slap pic.twitter.com/RLiVY2zXxc
— Big Boy (@BigBoy) April 2, 2023
Tony previously stated that Smith's decision to slap his brother stemmed from Jada Pinkett Smith’s relationship with the late rapper Tupac. Tony also revealed that he considered Will Smith to be a close friend and was disappointed that he had not reached out to him to make amends. “My phone number has never changed. So, I just thought I’d get a phone call one day like, ‘Ay, let’s just you and I just talk.’ It hasn’t happened, so I guess it’s not going to happen,” he said.
The mayhem between Smith and Rock occurred during the 94th Academy Awards ceremony in March 2022. Smith was banned from attending Academy events for a decade after he resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the aftermath of the incident.