Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Kenny Rock, the brother of comedian Chris Rock — who was the recipient of a slap across the face from actor Will Smith after Rock made a “GI Jane joke” about Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head — said that watching the incident “eats at me” because he saw a loved one being attacked and there was nothing he could do about it.
“Every time I’m watching the videos, it’s like a rendition that just keeps going over and over in my head,” he said. “My brother was no threat to him and you just had no respect for him at that moment. You just belittled him in front of millions of people that watch the show.”
Rock told The Times that he wants to see the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to take harsh disciplinary measures against Smith, including stripping away his Best Actor Oscar and banning him from the Academy.
While some have said Chris Rock’s joke was in poor taste since Pinkett Smith suffers from alopecia, but Kenny Rock said his brother had no idea about her condition.
“The joke was funny,” Kenny Rock said. “It wasn’t hilarious funny, but I know that if he knew that she had alopecia … he wouldn’t make a joke about that. But he didn’t know.”
In regards to Smith’s apology speech as he accepted his award minutes after the slap, Kenny Rock said he “might have looked at it differently had [Smith] initially apologized when he got on the stage and cried and accepted the award, but he didn’t, so, right there that tells me that it is something else.” Days later, in a resignation letter to the Academy, Smith specifically apologized to Chris Rock and his family, but Kenny isn’t convinced.
“No, I don’t accept it because I don’t think it was genuine,” he said. “I think his publicist and the people that work under him probably advised him to do that.”
“He belittled my brother. He had no respect for him,” Kenny Rock later added. “In my opinion, he embarrassed himself by doing that and his legacy by doing that.”
