As Will Smith slapping Chris Rock on stage on the Oscars continues to dominate headlines, Rock has been receiving praise for keeping his composure during the whole thing even as claims of him reconciling with Smith have reportedly been exaggerated. As it turns out, Rock recently revealed that he’s spent most of his life avoiding confrontation after his own anger got the better of him during a childhood fight.
While sitting down for a January episode of the Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade podcast, Rock shared an anecdote about how he violently reacted after years of bullying and basically spent the rest of his life avoiding any and all confrontation. According to Rock, the whole thing happened at a party where another boy pushed him down and kicked sand in his face in front of the girls, which was the final straw for Rock after years of being picked on at school. Via PEOPLE:
“I went home, I put a brick in a book bag — this is like a legendary story in my neighborhood — I swung that sh– 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 told hosts David Spade and Dana Carvey.
Later on, with the help of therapy, Rock realized the long-term impact the event had on his life.
“Long story short, from that day on, as my shrink puts it to me, you have been scared to be angry ever since,” he said. “The guy you saw was bending over backwards to be nice because I was so scared of my anger.”
While Rock also revealed that intense therapy sessions have helped him to not keep his feels repressed and let people walk all over him, not letting his anger out came in handy after being publicly assaulted by Smith. In fact, Rock’s professionalism has earned him accolades from Whoopi Goldberg. who doesn’t think the comedian gets enough credit for being the “adult” in the situation.
“Why do you think he would have indulged in a brawl (on a stage) in front of 3 billion people?” Whoopi asked during Wednesday’s episode of The View. “Why wouldn’t he be the adult?”
(Via PEOPLE)