Will Smith’s Mom Speaks Out on Chris Rock Oscar Smackdown: ‘The First Time I’ve Ever Seen Him Go Off’

Carolyn Smith said she had never seen her Oscar-winning son Will Smith “go off” until his confrontation with comedian Chris Rock at Sunday’s Academy Awards show.

Since the slap heard ’round the world during Sunday night’s Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Oscar Awards show, it seems like everyone in the entire world has chimed in about the moment, in literally every conceivable way — and in many ways that aren’t so conceivable.

But local Philadelphia-based station WPVI broke some new ground by speaking with Mr. Smith’s mom about the moment her son slapped Mr. Rock for cracking a joke on the subject of daughter-in-law Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair loss.

“Jada, I love you. ‘G.I. Jane 2,’ can’t wait to see it,” Rock told Mrs. Pinkett Smith, whose hair loss is a result of the medical condition alopecia.

Smith strode onstage moments later and slapped a stunned Rock, then returned to his seat and yelled at Rock from the audience to “Keep my wife’s name out ya fucking mouth!”

Mrs. Smith began the interview beaming with pride at her son’s Best Actor win for the film King Richard, but the subject soon turned to the moment everyone else is talking about.

“He is a very even people person,” Mrs. Smith said, adding that the incident was “the first time I’ve ever seen him go off.”

She paused for emphasis and repeated “The first time. In his lifetime.”

Asked if it surprised her, Smith replied “Yes, it did. It did. As I said, I’ve never seen him do that.”

She went on to say, of her famous son, “I am proud of him being him.”

The station also talked to the star’s younger sister, Ellen Smith, who said she has spoken with her brother about the challenges he has faced.

“It really kind of broke my heart, listening to the things that he said he had to go through to get to where he is,” Ms. Smith said.

Watch above via WPVI.