Chris Rock Might Be Ready To Meet With Will Smith Under One Condition
Are Chris Rock and Will Smith ready to make amends following the viral Oscars moment? After Will stormed the stage at the Oscars to slap Rock over a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, a lot went down. For the most part, Rock has remained tight-lipped about the incident, though his brother Tony has had no problem speaking his mind about Will.
Not too long after the incident happened, the "King Richard" star's career started to look grim. The Academy banned Will from attending the Oscars for 10 years, but they didn't impose a ban preventing him from winning an award. Will initially apologized to Rock on social media in March. In July, Will posted a YouTube video and issued yet another apology to Rock. "I've reached out to Chris, and the message that came back is he's not ready to talk, and when he is, he will reach out," he explained in the 5-minute-long video. "So I will say to you, Chris, I apologize to you. My behavior was unacceptable, and I'm here whenever you're ready to talk."
Not long after Will apologized, Rock made a subtle joke at one of his comedy shows, per CNN. "Everybody is trying to be a f**king victim. If everybody claims to be a victim, then nobody will hear the real victims," he joked with the crowd. "Even me getting smacked by Suge Smith ... I went to work the next day, I got kids." But, he still may be ready to make nice.
Chris Rock reportedly wants Will Smith to keep mum
Is Chris Rock ready to sit down with Will Smith one-on-one to hash things out? A report from Radar certainly suggests that — though there is one stipulation in the way. According to the outlet, Rock would be willing to meet with Will under the condition of silence. A source close to the situation shares that comedian would chat with Will as long as the actor would not publicly discuss what they say in private. Perhaps he would even ask Will to sign an NDA?
"If that means talking with Will, fine. Sooner or later, Chris will call him, but only if Will agrees that the entire conversation is off the record," the insider revealed. "The last thing Chris wants is Will making another sad video detailing everything that was said at their meeting." Another person close to the situation shared that Rock had "mixed feelings" on Will's apology video. "Part of him felt sorry for Will, and another part of him felt angry that Will was making himself out to be the victim," the source explained.
While Will's apology on video seemed pretty sincere, an insider told Us Weekly that Jada Pinkett Smith nudged her husband to make the video. "Jada has also been pushing Will to apologize because it has become this really dark cloud over her Red Table Talk series," the insider dished, adding that Will "never wanted" to do it in a public way.