Amy Schumer and Chris Rock. Broadimage/Shutterstock; Chris Pizzello/AP/Shutterstock
How to deal with her own backlash Amy SchumerShe was honest about her honest reaction to Will SmithSlapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars, but some haven’t appreciated it.
“It was so upsetting,” the 94th annual Academy Awards cohost, 40, told Howard Stern on Wednesday, April 13, about the onstage incident — during which Smith, 53, smacked Rock, 57, across the face for making fun of Jada Pinkett Smith.
“People made fun of Please send me for saying that it was traumatizing, but I don’t think it was traumatizing for me,” the Life & Beth star elaborated. “I think it was traumatizing for all of us.”
Schumer — who cohosted the Oscars on March 27 with Wanda Sykes Regina Hall — tweeted on March 30 that she was “still triggered and traumatized” by the violence inflicted on the Everyone Hates ChrisAlum by the King Richard star. (After slapping Rock for the comedian’s joke about Pinkett Smith’s shaved head — the Red Table Talk host has alopecia — Smith yelled at the South Carolina native, twice, to “keep my wife’s name out your f—king mouth.”)
The Amy SchumerStern, 68 was told by an alum how the altercation dominated Questlove‘s win for Best Documentary Feature for Summer of Soul, which Rock was presenting that day. “Chris Rock’s my good friend. Questlove is a friend of mine. We’re close. To see that happen, to see your friend get hit” was difficult for her to witness, she explained.
Amy Schumer. Jordan Strauss/AP/Shutterstock
Schumer noted that the “trauma” of watching Smith slap Rock was also so hard because the Bel-Air: The Fresh Prince alum is someone “who I’ve loved — who we’ve loved forever … I don’t remember a time I didn’t think, ‘I love that guy,’” she said, reasoning that the Ali actor “must have been in so much pain” to hit the Saturday Night Live alum.
“It was upsetting for so many reasons and it was upsetting to everyone. [To] everyone at home who didn’t even see what I saw,” she told the radio host. “It was shocking, and it was a bummer.”
Smith — who won the best actor Oscar later that evening for his performance as Richard Williams in King Richard — is currently experiencing intense fallout after the altercation.
The Pursuit of Happiness actor publicly apologized to Rock — as well as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, all audience members, viewers and the producers of the show — one day after the ceremony, calling his behavior “unacceptable and inexcusable.”
Smith resigned from Academy four days later. The board declared on Friday, April 8, that the “Miami” rapper is banned from the Oscars and all related Academy events for 10 years.
“I accept and respect the Academy’s decision,” the 7 Pounds actor told Page Six in a statement at the time.
Rock, for his part, declined to file a report with the police about the slap but has made mention of the incident in several standup routines.
An eyewitness has determined that the following: Longest Yard star told a heckler “no” when they yelled, “F—k Will Smith” during Rock’s March 31 set in Boston. Two days later, an audience member revealed that the comedian joked that he “had an interesting week” during his routine in New Jersey.
