Chris Rock says he has rejected the opportunity to host the 2023 Oscars
During his Sunday night show at the Arizona Financial Theatre in downtown Phoenix, Chris Rock revealed that he turned down an offer to host the 2023 Academy Awards.
According to a recent Arizona Republic report, the comedian said that he was asked to reprise his role as MC for the third time after hosting the awards show in 2005 and 2016. The request came after Will Smith slapped Rock onstage in reaction to a joke made at the expense of Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. The infamous incident took place while Rock was presenting the award for best documentary feature. Less than an hour later, Smith would return to the stage to accept an award for his performance in King Richard.
During his recent Pheonix show, Rock said that accepting the offer would have been like returning to the scene of the crime, a comment made in reference to the murder trial of O.J. Simpson, whose ex-wife’s murder began with her leaving a pair of her glasses at an Italian restaurant. According to Rock, asking him to host the Oscars after the Smith slapping incident was like asking Nicole Brown Simpson to “go back to the restaurant.”
The Pheonix crowd were hungry to hear more about Rock’s experience at the Oscars, with one audience member yelling: “Talk about it”. Treading carefully, he went on to reference Smith’s performance as the boxer Muhammed Ali in 2001’s Ali, which, rather fittingly, earned the actor his first Oscar nomination. “He’s bigger than me,” Rock said. “The state of Nevada would not sanction a fight between me and Will Smith.”
The Academy is still refusing to comment on Rock’s remarks during the Awards ceremony. However, in April, its governing board banned Smith from returning to the Oscars or any other Academy event for the next ten years. Of course, by that time, Smith had already resigned from the Academy.
In a recent statement, newly-appointed Academy CEO Bill Kramer said that they are “committed to having a host on the show this year” and “already looking at some key partners on that.”
He went on to clarify that the slapping incident will not be referenced in any way at next year’s awards show. “We want to move forward and to have an Oscars that celebrates cinema. That’s our focus right now,” he concluded.
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