Terry Crews Believes Chris Rock “Saved Hollywood” By Not Reacting To Will Smith’s Slap

He often offers controversial takes on pop culture and now, Terry Crews is weighing in on Will Smith and Chris Rock’s Academy Awards slap. The infamous Oscars moment has continued to be a hot topic among fans as well as Smith and Rock’s peers, and according to Crews, the comedian’s ability to keep his composure might have “saved Hollywood.”

Crews was chatting with The Hollywood Reporter about his memoir Tough: My True Journey to Power when he ventured off into the Rock and Smith discussion. “Both Will Smith and Chris Rock are dear, dear friends of mine,” he said. “I love them both as brothers, but there was a time in my life [where] I was Will Smith at that moment, and let me tell you, I’ve done worse than Will.”

Chris Rock, Will Smith
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“Way overkill, just … the punishment did not fit the crime. Like, people were like, ‘What in the world are you doing?’ My wife even had to be like, ‘You got to promise me you will never go off like this. You did not need to pick this man up and put him on his head, on the concrete,’ ” Crews added before praising his Everybody Hates Chris co-star. 

“When I look back, by what Chris did, by just deciding to hold everything together, it actually, I think in a lot of ways saved Hollywood, because if there would’ve been a brawl on that stage, I don’t know if Hollywood would’ve ever gotten any respect again, you know? It’s hard to even imagine what would’ve happened.”

“The definition of toughness where I grew up and the way I was, it was always the ability to strike, the ability to punch, the ability to set things straight, to even the score,” he said. “But the true definition of toughness was what Chris did in taking a punch and then holding everything together and then showing tremendous endurance and resilience in the middle of obstacles.”

Everybody Hates Chris
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