In an honest conversation with People magazine, comedian Leslie Jones talked about how she felt about Chris Rock and Will Smith’s famous Oscar slap. Jones, who is 56 years old, said that the event made her “so frustrated on so many levels.”
“I would have been all over that stage telling Will to calm down. “Call your man, Jada,” Jones joked during the conversation.
Jones went on to say that Chris Rock was “deeply affected” by the unexpected slap, which had a big effect on him. Rock and his family went to therapy together to help him deal with the shame and embarrassment that it caused.
“That incident really got to him,” Jones said. “People need to realize that his children and parents saw what happened. To deal with it, he had to go to counseling with his children.”
Jones didn’t hold back when she gave her opinion on the case. She said that Will Smith shouldn’t have accepted his Oscar that night.
“He still could have fixed it,” she said. “He could’ve said, ‘I shouldn’t have done that. Bring Chris out again. I can’t accept the Oscar right now because what I did was wrong.'”
Even though the slap had bad effects, Jones pointed out how Chris Rock, as a comedian, turned his pain into a stage for good. She liked that he talked about it in his “Selective Outrage” stand-up show.
Jones said that comedians use the stage to think about and talk about things. “Instead of going crazy, we put it on the stage. We’re lucky to have that way out.”
Jones also talked about the beginning of her comedy career and how important Chris Rock was as a teacher and friend.
“He’s like a brother to me,” Jones said with love. She remembered how, even though she was unsure, Rock persuaded her to try out for Saturday Night Live. “I was like, ‘Why, those aren’t real comics,'” she said. “He told me to be quiet. You sound like a complete fool.'”
In this interview, Leslie Jones talks about what happened after she was slapped by an Oscar winner. She also talks about how she and Chris Rock have stayed friends and helped each other. The way they work as comedians is still shaped by their friendship.