It's award season, and people are anticipating the Oscars following last year's controversy involving Will Smith and Chris Rock. Rock's Netflix special, Selective Outrage, was recently released to amplify the interest. As expected, Rock unleashed on Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett, who was at the center of the violent Academy Awards outburst last year. As far as the public knows, Smith and Rock have yet to chat about their falling out. PEOPLE claims to have spoken with a source with inside knowledge about how Smith is navigating this time.
The person told the outlet that Smith felt terrible about what occurred. "He's tried unsuccessfully to make amends in the best way he could with Chris," the source claims. "But beyond that, family is important to him and [Smith] leaned on them. It all has helped him look inside and mature. He is better but still remorseful. Will listened to those who tried to help him and feels that he has become a better person."
Chris Rock Ethers The Smiths
In Selective Outrage, Rock didn't hold back. “Y'all know what happened to me, getting smacked by Suge Smith. It still hurts. I got ‘Summertime’ ringing in my ears," he said. "But I’m not a victim, baby. You’ll never see me on Oprah or Gayle crying. You will never see it. Never gonna happen. … No, I took that hit like Pacquiao."
He then went on to take verbal shots at Jada by mentioning her "entanglement" controversy with August Alsina. “His wife was f*cking her son’s friend," he said. "Now, I normally would not talk about this sh*t, but for some reason, these n*ggas put this sh*t on the internet. I have no idea why two talented people would do something that f*cking low down. We’ve all been cheated on, everybody in here’s been cheated on. None of us has ever been interviewed by the person that cheated on us on television." He further stated, " She hurt him way more than he hurt me. … Everybody called him a b*tch, and who's he hit? Me! A n*gga he knows he can beat. That is some b*tch ass sh*t.”
Testing Out Jokes
Ahead of its release, there were rumors that he tested Smith-centered material during his stand-up shows. There was a report that Rock was said to have joked that he only watched Emancipation, a film about an enslaved man, to see Smith get whipped. Check out a clip of Chris Rock's Selective Outrage above.