Denzel Washington has revealed what he and Will Smith spoke about during the Oscars. Washington, Tyler Perry, and Bradley Cooper each approached the actor after he slapped Chris Rock over a joke at Jada Pinkett Smith’s expense. The Tragedy of Macbeth actor said that in that moment, he chose prayer.
TheWrap reports that author and pastor T.D. Jakes asked Washington about the slap while the actor appeared at his leadership summit on Saturday. Although the actor declined to go into too much detail about his conversation with Smith, he did offer some clarity—and a warning to anyone thinking of casting a stone Smith’s way.
“There’s a saying when the devil ignores you, then you know you’re doing something wrong—the devil goes, ‘Oh no leave him alone, he’s my favorite,’” Washington said with a laugh, per TheWrap. “Conversely, when the devil comes at you, maybe it’s because he’s trying to do something right. And for whatever reason the devil got ahold of him that night.”
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“Fortunately there were people there, not just me but others [like] Tyler Perry came immediately right over there with me,” Washington reportedly added. “Some prayers. I don’t wanna say what we talked about, but there but for the grace of God go any of us. Who are we to condemn? I don’t know all the ins and outs of this situation, but I know the only solution was prayer, the way I saw it—the way I see it.”
Rock’s joke—which compared Pinkett Smith to Demi Moore’s bald G.I. Jane—struck a nerve due to the actress’s public discussions about her alopecia, a health condition in which hair loss occurs in on part or all of the body.
Rock reportedly did not know Pinkett Smith has alopecia, but he’s made multiple jokes at the actress’s expense over the years. In 1997, he mocked the Philadelphia-based Million Women’s March—an event advocating for family unity and a deeper understanding of Black women in America—by saying he’d been speaking with Ice Cube, who called it “Bitches by the Bell.” Rock included a clip of Pinkett Smith speaking at the demonstration, which he edited to make her sing “The Roof Is On Fire.”
In 2016, as Pinkett Smith boycotted the Oscars as part of #OscarsSoWhite, Rock mocked the actress from the stage as host. “Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties,” he said. “I wasn’t invited.”
As predicted the moment it happened, Smith’s Oscars slap ignited ongoing, inescapable, utterly terrible discourse. Celebrities have been asked for comment left and right—and plenty more have offered their bad takes unprompted. A Hall of Famer from The Bubble director Judd Apatow: “He could have killed him. That’s pure out of control rage and violence. They’ve heard a million jokes about them in the last three decades. They are not freshman in the world of Hollywood and comedy. He lost his mind.”
Seemingly every detail of this story has caused dispute. When Diddy said Will Smith and Chris Rock reconciled after the slap, Rock’s brother called BS. Oscars producer Will Packer told Good Morning America that Rock had advocated for Smith to stay at the ceremony even despite the slap; Deadline, however, cited “reliable sources” who said that was not true and that Packer had only asked Rock if he wanted to press charges.
But speaking of Rock’s brother, Tony—he has more to say.
The Shade Room shared video of a comedy set in which Rock blasted Smith for smacking his older brother.
“If you think you gonna to walk up on this stage, this ain't the motherfucking Oscars!” the comedian said. “And if you walk your ass up here, you ain’t nominated for shit but these motherfucking hands!”
“You gonna hit my motherfucking brother because your bitch gave you a side-eye?” Rock added.
Smith resigned from the Academy Friday, days after the organization launched a “formal review” of the Oscars slap.
“I betrayed the trust of the Academy. I deprived other nominees and winners of their opportunity to celebrate and be celebrated for their extraordinary work. I am heartbroken.”
Smith added that he would accept “any further consequences” the Academy felt appropriate and concluded, “Change takes time and I am committed to doing the work to ensure that I never again allow violence to overtake reason.”
Although he declined to include Rock among his list of apologies while on stage accepting his Best Actor Oscar for King Richard, Smith has since issued a formal apology to the comedian. So far, however, there’s been no indication that Rock has accepted the mea culpa—publicly or privately.
Rock broke his silence about the incident at a comedy show Wednesday in Boston.
“I don’t have a bunch of shit about what happened, so if you came to hear that, I have a whole show I wrote before this weekend,” the comedian said. “I’m still kind of processing what happened. So, at some point I’ll talk about that shit. And it will be serious and funny.”
