A Timeline of Will Smith and Chris Rock’s Fair-Weather Friendship

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As if the Hollywood gods knew we were overdue for a scandal on live television, all of the regular expected awkwardness at the 2022 Academy Awards was eclipsed by Will Smith slapping Chris Rock across the face for the entire world to see, after the latter made a joke at Jada Pinkett Smith‘s expense.

But a little violence didn’t stop the Academy from giving Smith the Best Actor Award for his role in King Richard, where he plays Richard Williams, father and coach of tennis legends Venus and Serena Williams. “Richard Williams was a fierce defender of his family,” Smith said during his speech, holding back tears — almost as if to give Rock an ever-so-subtle fuck you.

But being two comedy legends of the ’90s, Rock and Smith’s relationship goes way back, as both friends and on-screen collaborators. And after Smith married Pinkett Smith in 1997, the trio had been seen on a number of public outings together like the old pals they were.

So, what happened? While it’s not clear exactly when things started going off the rails, Smith and Rock’s relationship hasn’t always been a smooth-sailing one. Below, see the full timeline of interactions between the two.

1995: Rock Visits Bel-Air

Notably, Smith and Rock appeared together in Spike Jonze’s 1999 mockumentary Torrance Rises. But even a few years before that, Rock made a guest appearance on an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, pulling double-duty in a Season 6 episode portraying famous actor Maurice Perry and Maurice’s sister Jasmine. While the cross-dressing bit hasn’t aged well, the two men sure seemed comfortable enough to share a few compromising scenes together.

1997: Laughing it Off

Before officially tacking the “Smith” on to her name, Pinkett Smith visited Rock’s HBO talk show The Chris Rock Show as part of the press junket surrounding Scream 2. Considering how comfortable she looks bouncing jokes off of Rock and cackling at his remarks in return, it appears that at this point, things were going swimmingly between the two of them.

February 28th, 2016: Jokes by Invitation Only

At the height of the #OscarsSoWhite movement, the Smiths were among the industry elites who boycotted the 2016 awards show over a lack of diversity among nominees. During his opening monologue as the evening’s host, Rock made a poor-taste joke implying that Pinkett Smith actually wasn’t invited to the show. “Jada says she’s not coming,” Rock said. “Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties. I wasn’t invited!”

As if dragging Rihanna into the mix wasn’t repugnant enough, Rock then proceeded to diss Smith: “Jada’s mad her man Will was not nominated for Concussion. I get it,” Rock said. “It’s also not fair that Will was paid $20 million for Wild Wild West.” Pinkett Smith took the remarks gracefully, but it clearly contributed to some bad blood between Smith and Rock.

December 28th, 2021: No Hair, Don’t Care

In 2018, Pinkett Smith shared she had been diagnosed with alopecia, a common autoimmune disorder that causes hair to fall out. By the end of 2021, she decided to outsmart the condition by shaving her head altogether. She first revealed the chop in a video shared to Instagram, her scalp fabulously on display. “Me and this alopecia are going to be friends,” she wrote in the caption. Pinkett Smith has since been highly praised for her transparency about her experience with hair loss.

March 27th, 2022: The Slap Heard ‘Round the World

Oscars hosts and presenters love to roast their peers in Hollywood, but Smith does not take too kindly to jokes about his wife. In case you somehow missed it all over Twitter: Just before presenting the award for Best Documentary Feature, Rock teased a few audience members, quipping that Pinkett Smith looked like “G.I. Jane” with her bald head. Without missing a beat, Smith walked onto the stage and whacked Rock across the face.

US broadcasters were quick to mute the sound, but some international channels caught the full dialogue. “Wow, Will Smith just smacked the shit out of me,” Rock responded in amazement. Smith then screamed from his seat, loud enough for the whole venue to hear: “Keep my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth!”

“Wow, dude, it was a G.I. Jane joke,” Rock responded. Smith yelled again: “Keep my wife’s name out your fucking mouth!” Even with the sound cut out, you can catch the memo just by reading Smith’s lips. Rock has reportedly declined to press charges.

After an apparent pep talk from Denzel Washington and Tyler Perry, Smith had cooled down enough to accept his Best Actor Award for his leading role in King Richard. “I’m being called on in my life to love people and to protect people and to be a river to my people,” Smith said tearfully in his speech. “In this business, you’ve got to be able to have people disrespecting you. You gotta smile, you gotta pretend like that’s OK.”

“I want to apologize to the Academy,” Smith continued. “I want to apologize to all my fellow nominees. This is a beautiful moment and I’m not crying for winning an award — it’s not about winning an award for me. It’s about being able to shine light on all of the people.”

The actor closed out his speech: “Art imitates life. I look like the crazy father, just like they said about Richard Williams. But love will make you do crazy things.”

A Timeline of Will Smith and Chris Rock’s Fair-Weather Friendship
Abby Jones

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