Chris Rock alopecia interview goes viral after Oscars slap

Woman with alopecia from Chris Rock film slams him for Oscars joke: ‘Shame on you’

A man in a blue velvet suit holding a red envelope.

March 29, 2022 1:23 PM PT

A woman with alopecia, who appeared in a 2009 documentary produced by Chris Rock, condemned the comedian Monday for making a hair joke about Jada Pinkett Smith, who has the same condition.

Not long after Will Smith slapped Rock at the Oscars award ceremony Sunday for comparing Pinkett Smith’s shaved head to Demi Moore’s hairstyle in the 1997 movie “G.I. Jane,” a clip from the comic’s film “Good Hair” began making the rounds on social media.

In the video, Rock listens intently as interior designer Sheila Bridges details her struggles with hair loss caused by alopecia. Bridges and Pinkett Smith both have alopecia areata — a disease that occurs when the body’s immune system attacks hair follicles, often on the scalp or face, but sometimes on other parts of the body. Sometimes hair falls out in chunks and only partial baldness results. Other times hair grows back, but repeated bouts of baldness can also occur.

“While I do not condone violence (or what Will Smith did), I am not completely surprised that Chris Rock got rocked by Will Smith after making the medical condition of @jadapinkettsmith part of his comedic schtick — disrespecting her publicly,” Bridges wrote on Instagram.

“Shame on you @chrisrock. Didn’t we sit down and talk at length about how painfully humiliating and difficult it is to navigate life as a bald woman in a society that is hair obsessed? As if life isn’t challenging enough out here as an unprotected black woman?”

It’s unclear if Rock was aware of Pinkett Smith’s experience with alopecia before making fun of the actor, who has been vocal about her hair loss on social media and her hit Facebook Watch series “Red Table Talk.”

Regardless, the quip was ill-received — especially by “King Richard” star Smith, who rushed the Oscars stage and smacked Rock in the face before twice shouting, “Keep my wife’s name out your f— mouth!”

On Monday, Smith apologized to Rock for his “unacceptable and inexcusable” behavior.

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

In addition to casting a shadow over the Oscars ceremony, Smith’s violent outburst also shed new light on alopecia, which Bridges discussed more than a decade ago in “Good Hair.”

For Rock’s comedic documentary about hair culture in the Black community, Bridges opened up about her journey with the disease.

“I chose not to wear a wig for a number of reasons,” Bridges says in the film. “I never wanted to feel like I was hiding something. I wanted to deal with accepting who you are and looking in the mirror and feeling as though you’re beautiful and legitimate. ...

“I think the reason hair’s so important is because our self esteem is wrapped up in it. It’s like a type of currency for us — even though those standards are completely unrealistic and unattainable, especially for Black women.”

On a 2018 episode of “Red Table Talk,” Pinkett Smith shared her thoughts on hair loss and how the condition has affected her emotionally. In July 2021, the “Girls Trip” star decided to fully embrace her baldness by shaving her head along with her daughter, Willow Smith.

“It was terrifying when it first started,” Pinkett Smith said.

“I was in the shower one day, and then just handfuls of hair — just in my hands — and I was like, ‘Oh, my God, am I going bald?’ It was one of those times in my life where I was literally shaking with fear. That’s a really scary experience.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Woman with alopecia from Chris Rock film slams him for Oscars joke: ‘Shame on you’

More to Read

More From the Los Angeles Times

Most Read in Movies