Will Smith’s Oscars slap ended up helping Rob Lowe — here’s why
Rob Lowe says Will Smith’s Oscars slap briefly lifted a weight off him—and four years later, Chris Rock has thoughts of his own.
On SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live this week, Rob Lowe revisited his infamous 1989 Academy Awards opener and admitted the 2022 telecast briefly took some pressure off him. Lowe said that when the Will Smith–Chris Rock confrontation erupted on stage, he had a very specific, very un-Hollywood reaction.
"When Will Smith slapped Chris Rock, I was the only person happy. Because I was like, 'Oh, good. So now that's the worst moment in Oscar history,'"
That relief didn’t last. Lowe told Cohen that despite everything that’s happened since, his much-mocked duet with a Snow White impersonator—complete with “Proud Mary”—still gets trotted out as a cautionary tale every awards season.
"But it turns out not really. Turns out I still am dragged, dragged every year,"
The 1989 opener has lingered so stubbornly in Oscar lore that producers still reference it as the example to avoid, Lowe said, even as he’s long since moved on with a busy TV and podcast life.
Rock keeps it moving
In a new September interview with Variety, Chris Rock said he wishes the onstage altercation had never happened, but he isn’t letting it define him. Asked about the incident, he kept it brief and put it in perspective.
He described his bad day as “not that important.”
Rock steered the conversation to his next project, Misty Green, his first feature as a director since 2014’s Top Five. Rosalind Eleazar leads the cast as the title character, with Rock also appearing alongside a stacked lineup:
- Rosalind Eleazar
- Chris Rock
- Anna Kendrick
- Adam Driver
- Daniel Kaluuya
- Topher Grace
He also suggested his Oscar-hosting days may be behind him, praising Conan O’Brien’s monologue and saying he’d only return to the ceremony under very specific circumstances.