Will Smith: Chris Rock’s Oscars joke about Jada Pinkett Smith not scripted, insider says

An industry insider has revealed that Chris Rock’s controversial “GI Jane” joke about Jada Pinkett Smith at the Oscars on Sunday (27 March) was unscripted.

ABC executive Robb Mills told Variety on Monday (28 March) that the comedian ad-libbed the joke which prompted Best Actor awardee Will Smith to walk up to the stage and hit Rock.

“Jada, I love you. GI Jane 2, can’t wait to see you,” Rock had quipped while presenting the Oscar for Best Documentary, appearing to refer to Pinkett Smith’s shaved head.

Pinkett Smith – who announced last year that she shaved her head after struggling with alopecia – could be seen in the audience together with her husband, rolling her eyes at Rock’s comment.

Mills, who was in the Oscars production trailer when the incident occurred, also told the publication that Rock “was doing, I think, material based on what happened that night as any comedian will do”.

Recounting the moments before Smith struck Rock on-stage, before yelling at him to keep Pinkett-Smith’s “name out of your f****** mouth”, Mills added: “He made the [GI Jane] joke. Obviously, you could see the joke did not land with Jada. And then you see Will start to get up and walk up.”

Mills also told Variety that the Oscars productions team, including director Glenn Weiss, realised something was wrong when Rock swore on live television.

“You started to realise this is real once Chris, who certainly knows the limits of broadcast standards, said, ‘Will Smith slapped the s*** out of me,’” Mills explained.

Smith, who accepted the Best Actor Oscar for King Richard shortly after the altercation occurred, has apologised to Rock, even as the Academy announced on Monday that it had launched a “formal review” of the unsavoury incident.

The 53-year-old actor, who portrayed tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams’s father Richard in the 2021 movie, took responsibility for his actions in an Instagram statement addressed also to the Academy.

“Jokes at my expense are a part of the job, but a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to bear emotionally. I would like to publicly apologise to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong,” Smith wrote.

After the Oscars live broadcast was concluded, the Academy on Twitter condemned Smith’s actions, writing that it “doesn’t condone violence of any form.”