By now, you’ve probably seen the footage of Will Smith losing his cool at the 2022 Oscars in defense of his wife, Jada Pinkett. You’ve probably watched countless videos about the incident, so we won’t bore you by rehashing all the details of what went down that night.
Looking back at the footage, a lot of people assume the entire incident was staged, especially since Chris Rock took the slap like a G and didn’t even bother to retaliate. However, there’s a deeper reason why Chris Rock didn’t react to Will Smith at the 2022 Oscars. He may have tolerated that disrespectful treatment due to his traumatic childhood.
Chris Rock’s childhood was a ‘horrible existence’
Christopher Julius Rock the third was born on February 7, 1965, in Andrews, South Carolina. And as a toddler, his family relocated to Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood.
Chris’ parents had high expectations for him and his siblings, especially as it pertained to their education. Chris was bussed to a school in a white neighborhood where he was the only Black student. He told The Hollywood Reporter he was regularly greeted with signs that read: “N- word, go home.”
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Chris said that at the age of 6, he realized how easy it was to make people laugh, but his gift didn’t help him at school. He was relentlessly targeted by his schoolmates from the second grade up until he dropped out of school in the tenth grade just for being black. From being called the n-word every day to being physically attacked because he was small and skinny, he was living in a nightmare. During an appearance on the Howard Stern Sirius XM show, Chris said that something sexual happened to him at school as well. His entire childhood was, what he described as, “just a horrible existence.
Despite being tormented, he dealt with it and bottled up his emotions. He said, “No matter what I was going through, it paled in comparison to what my mom or my dad went through; so, there wasn’t a lot of dealing with it.”
The real reason Chris Rock doesn’t react with anger
During a January 2022 appearance on the Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade podcast, Chris said the treatment he received from his peers developed into a temper.
One day, a guy really disrespected him at a party by pushing him and kicking sand in his face in front of some girls. Chris said he went home, put a brick in his book bag, went back to the party, and swung the book bag in the guy’s face.
The guy was seriously injured to the point that he was close to losing his life. Chris stated that from that day on, he has been so scared of his own anger that he holds himself back and never reacts. This has also led to him allowing anyone and everyone to walk all over him, from family to friends to the women in his past relationships…
So a man that lived through daily trauma as a child was physically assaulted and embarrassed on live television in front of millions of people… simply because he told a joke. And, we get it, the G.I. Jane joke was in poor taste, considering Jada’s alopecia diagnosis, but did Chris deserve to get five fingers to the face?
And now that you know more about his life and his history, it makes more sense why Chris didn’t put them paws on Will, doesn’t it?
Now, let’s jump back into this story.
Chris Rock has a combination of a big ego and ‘low self-esteem’
Chris dropped out of high school in the 10th grade and earned his GED. He studied broadcast journalism for a year at a community college but eventually decided to pursue a career as a comedian.
He told the New York Times that when he starts writing his stand-up routine, everything starts out really sad and tragic, and then he makes it funny.
By the age of 19, he was making the rounds in New York clubs when he caught the eye of his favorite comedian, Eddie Murphy. Eddie gave him a part in Beverly Hills Cop II, and Chris eventually followed in Eddie’s footsteps by appearing on Saturday Night Live. He also briefly joined In Living Color right before the show was canceled.
Chris returned to the comedy club circuit and became fixated on perfecting his craft. He told The Hollywood Reporter he lined the basement of his Brooklyn home with mirrors so he could watch himself and perfect his physical delivery.
Looking back on that period of his life, Chris described himself as having a, quote, “great combination of big ego and low self-esteem.” He added, “And the ego gets you out onstage, but the low self-esteem is the thing that makes you practice so much because you don’t believe in yourself at all. You think you’re a total f*****g fraud — and you don’t think anybody could love you for being you, so you have to be good at this thing.”
Fear turned out to be his greatest motivator. He had a fear of failing, a fear of letting people down, and a fear of not being rich and famous anymore. Unfortunately, that fear took a toll on his life, his relationships, and his sense of self.
Chris Rock struggles with a nonverbal learning disorder (NVLD)
After a friend suggested he may have Asperger syndrome, Chris decided to seek help in the form of nine hours worth of cognitive tests. Doctors eventually diagnosed him with a condition called nonverbal learning disorder, also known as NVLD.
Based on the diagnosis, Chris learned he has tremendous difficulty with non-verbal signals — which doesn’t sound too drastic until you realize that experts agree that 70 to 93 percent of all communication is nonverbal.
This means he has a better grasp of words and likely doesn’t realize when someone is expressing anger, sadness, or frustration in their facial expressions or body language. This might also explain why Chris was smiling and relaxed when Will bum-rushed the Oscars stage.
Because of the syndrome, Chris has had a difficult time with one-on-one relationships. He stated, “Any time someone would respond to me in a negative way, I’d think, ‘Whatever, they’re responding to something that has to do with who they think I am.’ Now, I’m realizing it was me. A lot of it was me.”
He admitted to Oprah that he has very few friends and he also takes blame for the end of his nearly 20-year marriage to Malaak Compton. The couple, who share two children together, finalized their divorce in 2016. Chris told Rolling Stone magazine he was a “piece of s**t husband” and cheated on her with three women during their marriage.
Chris Rock is in therapy to deal with his diagnosis
His NVLD diagnosis has since prompted him to seek professional help from two therapists. As of 2020, he’s revealed that he undergoes seven hours worth of therapy per week. Because he was able to laugh about his younger years for so long, he thought he was over it, but he wasn’t. Chris said, “The reality was the pain and the fear that that brought me, I was experiencing it every day.”
Chris continues to rise above his childhood and is now considered one of Hollywood’s most versatile entertainers. He has gone on to direct and star in countless movies and Broadway plays. He’s most famously known as the man behind Everybody Hates Chris – a television show that is loosely based on his life.
Despite everything he has gone through, he’s grateful that comedy has given him, and his fans, a form of escape. He told Oprah: “This is absolutely what I was put on earth to do—to make people laugh about things that weren’t so funny to begin with. That’s why I’m here.”
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