Chris Rock went to counseling after Oscars slap, says Leslie Jones
Jones said Rock, who wrote the forward to her new memoir, "Leslie F*cking Jones," sought counseling with his daughters over being slapped by Will Smith at the 2022 Oscars.
Leslie Jones spoke about her friend and fellow comic Chris Rock and the aftermath of his getting slapped during the 2022 Academy Awards. She said Rock sought counseling following the incident.
Jones recalled the infamous attack with People while discussing her memoir, “Leslie F*cking Jones,” which dropped Tuesday. She stated that Rock, who wrote the forward to her memoir, needed counseling following the Oscars. Jones said the attack was “humiliating” for Rock, and its effects lingered long.
“People need to understand his daughters, his parents, saw that,” Jones said. “He had to go to counseling with his daughters.” It “infuriated” her to see Smith hit her friend on live television, she said.
“You don’t know that I was going to jump in my car and roll up there,” Jones continued. “I was so f-cking mad on so many levels.” She said Smith missed a chance to make amends during the ceremony and maintained that when Smith took the stage to accept the award for best actor, he could have said, “I shouldn’t have did that. Bring Chris out. I can not accept the Oscar right now because that was f-cking wrong.'”
Jones wrote in her book that she has known Rock since the mid-1990s. They formed a friendship as she worked through the stand-up comedy circuit. In 2013, Jones said Rock convinced her to audition for NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” the show where he became a star in the early 1990s.
“He’s just always there to give me the perfect advice when I need it,” Jones said of Rock, who she calls a “brother.”
Rock publicly exorcised the Oscars demons in his comedy. He addressed the slapping incident in his Netflix special, “Selective Outrage,” which Jones praised, despite its mixed reviews.
“Everybody got pissed off about him doing a special,” she noted. “That’s what comedians do.”
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