Chris Rock breaks silence on 'painful' Will Smith slap with jibe at his career
Chris Rock has spoken out for the first time about the "painful" slap he received from Will Smith at last year's Oscars ceremony.
54-year-old Will made global headlines and faced widespread criticism after storming the Academy Awards stage and slapping 58-year-old Chris over a joke made about Jada Pinkett Smith.
While he continued to pick up his Best Actor gong at the bash, the actor later resigned from the Academy and has been banned from attending for 10 years.
A year after the scandal, Chris has opened up about the infamous incident and revealed people always ask him if it hurt.
The comedian is currently preparing for his upcoming Netflix special Selective Outrage and practiced some new material for the show during a recent performance in Charleston, South Carolina.
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"The thing people want to know . . . did it hurt? Hell yeah, it hurt," Chris said while on stage.
Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at last year's Oscars (AFP via Getty Images)He added that Will had an advantage over him because of his size and joked about the different roles they've played in their careers.
"He played Muhammad Ali! I played Pookie! Even in animated movies, I'm a zebra, he's a f***ing shark," Chris said.
According to The Sun, the audience were left in hysterics when Chris mocked Will's hit 90s song Summertime, saying: "I got hit so hard I heard Summertime ringing in my ears."
Selective Outrage will air live on Netflix on March 4 from Baltimore's Hippodrome Theatre, just one week before this year's Academy Awards.
Chris opens up about the incident in his upcoming Netflix show (Netflix)
The show will be streamed a week before the Oscars (Netflix)Will has since apologised for slapping Chris and apologised to his family for "the heat" he brought on them.
In a video shared on YouTube, Will said: "I made a choice on my own from my own experiences, from my history with Chris.
"I want to say sorry to my kids and my family for the heat that I've brought on all of us. I've reached out to Chris and the message that came back is that he's not ready to talk, and when he is he will reach out.
Will has since apologised slapping Chris (Getty Images)"So I will say to you, Chris, I apologise to you. My behaviour was unacceptable, and I'm here whenever you're ready to talk."
Chris' latest comments about the slap comes after it was announced the 2023 Academy Awards ceremony will have "a whole crisis team" on standby who will "be prepared for anything".
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Staff will be on hand to deal with any surprise moments and to make sure there is no repeat of last year's controversial incident.
Academy chief executive Bill Kramer said: "Things don't always go as planned.
"So you have a host in place who can really pivot and manage those moments. But we have a whole crisis team, something we've never had before, and many plans in place."
"We've run many scenarios. So it is our hope that we will be prepared for anything that we may not anticipate right now but that we’re planning for just in case it does happen," Bill told Time Magazine.
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