Chris Rock, who was slapped by Will Smith while hosting the 2022 Oscars, has revealed that he was asked to be the MC again at the 2023 Oscars, but he declined the opportunity.
The 57-year-old comedian told a Phoenix comedy show audience on Sunday, August 28, that going back to the Oscars would be like returning to a crime scene.
He likened it to asking the late Nicole Brown Simpson “to go back to the restaurant” where she left her eyeglasses before she was killed, in a reference to the murder trial of O.J. Simpson, who was acquitted in the case.
Someone in the sold-out concert asked Rock to talk about being slapped by Will Smith, and Chris Rock admitted that the blow from Smith hurt.
“He’s bigger than me,” Chris Rock said.
He added: “The state of Nevada would not sanction a fight between me and Will Smith.”
Rock also claimed he was offered a post-slap Super Bowl commercial, but he turned it down.
Rock had previously hosted the Oscars twice – in 2005 and again in 2016.
