‘He’s a liar. A complete, utter fraud’
American comedy legend Rob Schneider has labelled Will Smith a “liar” and an “a**hole” in a scathing rant about the actor.
The 60-year-old was speaking on KIIS FM’s The Kyle & Jackie O Show on Wednesday morning when he was asked by host Kyle Sandilands about the infamous moment when Smith slapped Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars for a joke the comic made about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
Schneider was asked if he had reached out to his close friend Rock after the slap. This prompted him to go on a five-minute rant about Smith, accusing him of doing a “deep, dark thing.”
He said: “It’s a deep, dark thing to do that in front of all those people and to a really great legendary comedian who’s literally the best comedian of our generation. You wouldn’t have this whole wave of comedy that came after if it wasn’t for Chris Rock. He’s kicked open the doors.
“But I wasn’t allowed to say anything at that time because we were part of the committee that’s supposed to punish him.
“He’s a liar. A complete, utter fraud. And it was exposed in that time.”
The comedian went on to describe the King Richard star as a “douchebag” and said the Academy was “cowardly” for not immediately removing Smith from the ceremony for the slap.
He said: “That’s how politically correct the Academy is. They were so cowardly. Because if I would have done that, they would have been hauled off to prison, but because they were so worried about being racist or whatever, they were like: ‘We can’t offend.’
“But the point is, violence is what it is. And whether the colour of your skin or your religion, it doesn’t matter if you commit a crime in front of other people, you get hauled out of there.”
Schneider didn’t watch the slap live as he was directing a film at the time, but recalled the moment he was told about it.
“I was in a car and my assistant director, she looked at me and she said, ‘Ugh’. I said, ‘What happened?’ and she said: ‘Chris Rock just got slapped by Will Smith’.
“I said ‘Get out of here. It didn’t happen’. I made the phone calls and it did happen. [Rock] didn’t want to talk to anybody. I don’t blame him.
“But it took him a while to get to where he could react to it because it was a lot. And he’s a very sensitive, great guy and he’s literally a genius. And so just trying to figure out the right way at the right timing because I would have said something. I’m an idiot, I would have tried to kick back.”
Shortly after the slap, Schneider wrote on Twitter: “There’s never an excuse for violence. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever.”
As punishment for his actions, Smith received a 10-year ban from the Oscars, but remains one of the biggest stars in Hollywood.
Pinkett Smith has since said that the slap saved her marriage to the actor because “so many positive things came after it.”
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