Jimmy Kimmel said Chris Rock 'should be proud' of his answer to Will Smith

Jimmy Kimmel, during an interview with People magazine regarding the Oscars, discussed last year's sensational event when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock on the face onstage. Kimmel hosted the Oscars for the first time in 2017, the year the erroneous Best Picture winner was announced live on television due to a backstage envelope incident.

Recalling the surprising moment, the tv host said, "In some ways it feels like an episode of a TV show I watched and then put out of my head. It was a very intense and confusing end to what was otherwise a pretty great night."

Kimmel then pondered on Smith and Rock's surprising meeting last year.

Kimmel said, "It's still shocking that that happened. To see something like that happen outside of like The Maury Povich Show is shocking. And then for it to happen on the Oscars magnifies it by about a million times…. I think it's something that everybody regrets and that we will move past. One day it will be looked at in the same way as that guy running onstage naked is looked at: a weird moment that we all talked about and we hopefully learn from."

Since last Oscars, Jimmy Kimmel hasn't talked to Will Smith:

While Kimmel said he hasn't talked to Smith, he has been in touch with Rock and thinks Rock should be pleased with the comedian's onstage response to Smith.

Kimmel said, "I mean, to be slapped in the face and to stay that cool is something that Chris should be proud of. Chris's grandchildren, I hope, will still be proud of that when he's dead and gone."

On March 12, Kimmel will come back to host the Oscars for the third time in his career.