The comedian explained why Rock “wasn’t up to perform” in his new Netflix movie.
Jerry Seinfeld revealed that he eyed Chris Rock to parody Will Smith’s infamous Oscars slap in his Netflix movie “Unfrosted.”
The comedian, in a recent episode of Dana Carvey and David Spade’s “Fly on the Wall” podcast, said he wanted to have Rock cast as the host of the Bowl & Spoon Awards in the film depicting a fictional tale on the creation of Pop-Tarts.
“We shot that right after the Will Smith slap and I was gonna have somebody come up on the stage and have Chris punch ’em out as they got there,” said Seinfeld as he spoke of a scene that would have mocked Smith slapping Rock at the 2022 Academy Awards.
Seinfeld added that Rock “wasn’t up to perform,” however, as he was still a “little shook” from the event.
“That was what that scene was going to be but Cedric saved the day. I love Cedric,” said Seinfeld as he referred to Cedric the Entertainer, who took on the role of host Stu Smiley minus the on-stage slap in the movie.
Rock never used Seinfeld’s directorial debut to poke fun at the slap but he did take to his Netflix special “Selective Outrage” to weigh in on incident.
“People are like, ‘Did it hurt?’ It still hurts. I got ‘Summertime’ ringing in my ears,” quipped Rock in the special that aired early last year.
Seinfeld asked Carvey and Spade if they thought the Smith-Rock parody would’ve been funny.
“Without the Will Smith thing, I think it’s funny. There’s still kind of a residual darkness around that moment,” Carvey said.
“Yeah, isn’t that what we’re attracted to more than anything? Residual darkness,” Seinfeld said. “I don’t know if it would have worked but it was an idea,”
