Chris Rock recently discussed his experiences with being bullied as a child and how he let people “walk all over” him.
The 57-year-old funnyman opened up about how he was “bullied ridiculously” on the podcast “Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade,” about two months before being slapped by Will Smith at the Oscars.
“Half of the bullying was because I was just a little guy. Then I got bused to school and the bullying was because I was little guy and I was black. I was getting double-bullied,” the comic said on the Jan. 12 episode, according to People.
He said at one point, he finally decided to fight back against a bully.
“I went home, I put a brick in a book bag — this is like a legendary story in my neighborhood — I swung that s— and smacked the guy in the face with this brick and stomped on him, Joe Pesci-style, to the point that we thought he might die,” Rock recounted.
The “Saturday Night Live” alum noted that the violent incident prompted him to seek therapy.
“Long story short, from that day on, as my shrink puts it to me, you have been scared to be angry ever since,” he told Carvey and Spade. “The guy you saw was bending over backwards to be nice because I was so scared of my anger.”
Rock said his therapist told him he had to move past the incident because “this guy brought something out in you and you’re so scared of that thing coming out of you again that you let the whole world walk all over you.
He added: “Your friends walk over you, your friends walk over you, your female relationships — everybody just f—s you over.”
Rock said he can now better handle his emotions.
“I’m not scared of letting people know how I feel about certain things,” he said. “Now, I can say, ‘Hey I don’t like what you said to me,’ without losing my head — without hitting someone on the head with a frickin’ brick.”
On Sunday, Rock was visibly stunned but got his emotions in check after Smith, 53, stormed onto the stage and slapped him across the face for making a joke about the actor’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
Rock compared Pinkett Smith — who suffers from alopecia and shaved her head last summer — to Demi Moore’s bald character from the film “G.I. Jane,” prompting the slap that stunned the audience and viewers worldwide.
“Keep my wife’s name out of your f–king mouth!” Smith then shouted — twice — after returning to his seat.
Rock recovered quickly and continued with his set before leaving the stage.
Just minutes later, Smith scooped up the Best Actor Oscar for his role in “King Richard.”
Smith apologized to the Academy and his fellow nominees during his acceptance speech. At the time, he notably left out Rock’s name, but he has since issued a formal apology.
The Academy said it is investigating the incident in a “formal review” that will “explore further action and consequences.”
