Chris Rock opened up about the uncomfortable moment he shared with Jude Law when he “went a little too hard” on the actor in his Oscars opening monologue.
The comedian, who hosted the Academy Awards for the first time in 2005, recently looked back on the incident involving Law in an interview with Variety published Tuesday.
“We’re fine now,” Rock, 61, told the outlet. “But I remember bumping into him early after that, and he was definitely not having it.”
Rock said he crossed paths with Law, now 53, at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles while he was with Courtney Love, who he recalled was “growling, ‘Get the f–k out of here.’”
“Anyway, it was a great time. It was an honor to host the Oscars,” Rock added.
Rock kicked off the ceremony by poking fun at how often Law had been appearing on screen.
Law had been nominated for Best Actor for “Cold Mountain” at the 2004 Oscars and had starred in several films that year, including “I Heart Huckabees,” “Alfie,” “Closer,” “The Aviator,” “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” and “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.”
“You want Tom Cruise and all you can get is Jude Law?” Rock joked in his opening monologue. “Wait. It’s not the same thing, OK? Who is Jude Law? Why is he in every movie I have seen the last four years? He’s in everything. Even the movies he’s not acting in. If you look at the credits, he made cupcakes or something.
“He’s in everything,” he continued. “He’s gay, he’s straight, he’s American, he’s British. Next year, he’s playing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in a movie.”
Law later addressed the joke in a September 2006 interview with the New York Times, telling the outlet that he “had no control over” what had been said about him.
“At first I laughed, because I didn’t think he knew who I was. Then I got angry as his remarks, I felt, became more personal. My friends were livid,” he told the publication. “As a celebrity I know I’m fair game for a lot of things that I don’t like, but Rock crossed the line when he made his point and got his laugh then seemingly wouldn’t stop. It’s very unfortunate that I had five or six films come out at the same time.”
He also appeared to take a subtle shot at Rock when offering the Academy advice about having Rock host again.
“The proof’s in the pudding,” Law said. “If you can’t get Billy Crystal, then wait.”
Rock would return to the Oscars stage in 2016 to host the 88th Academy Awards, but by 2019, he had ruled out taking on the gig again.
In another Variety interview published Tuesday, Rock revealed that he has no plans to return to the awards show unless he is nominated.
He has not attended the ceremony since 2022, when Will Smith famously slapped him while he was presenting after a joke about the “Men in Black” actor’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
“I’m not getting nominated. The only way I’ll go back is if I’m nominated, and I’m not getting nominated,” Rock told the outlet. “And that’s OK. We’ll deal with that if it happens. Like, let’s manage expectations.”
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