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ControversyApple is releasing a movie starring Will Smith, despite his Oscar slap
“Emancipation” puts the disgraced actor at the head of the bill. Hollywood professionals were betting on a postponement.
March 2022: After the slap, Will Smith cuts a fine figure with his Oscar. The actor probably does not yet measure the height of the wave.
IMAGO/ZUMA Wire
Less than a year after the scandal caused by the slap of Will Smith at the Oscars, Apple announced on Monday the release in December of its new film “Emancipation”, with the actor at the head of the bill.
Hollywood professionals were instead banking on a postponement of this historic feature film on slavery, because of the scent of sulfur that has emanated from Mr. Smith since his slap last March on the host of the Oscars, comedian Chris Rock. A slippage widely condemned, which earned him 10 years of exclusion from the ceremony.
Despite the controversy, Apple will launch “Emancipation” in American theaters on December 2, before a release on its Apple TV+ streaming platform the following week.
In the race for the Oscars
This calendar allows the group to propose the film for the next Oscars, just after becoming the first streaming platform to be awarded the statuette for best film at the last ceremony, thanks to its feature film “CODA”.
Mr Smith has kept a low profile since the last Oscars, when he won best actor for his performance in ‘The Williams Method’, minutes after slapping Chris Rock, who had derided his wife’s alopecia , Jada Pinkett Smith.
The former “Prince of Bel-Air” publicly apologized shortly after the incident. In July, he also posted a video on social networks, proposing a meeting with the comedian.
Not excluded from competition
The 54-year-old actor has voluntarily resigned from the Academy of Oscars. This banned him from ceremonies for 10 years, but nothing prevents him from being nominated for the competition. His Best Actor Oscar was not taken away from him despite the scandal.
In “Emancipation”, he camps a runaway slave in the swamps of Louisiana, with the hope of reaching the north of the country, synonymous with freedom for African Americans in the United States of the 19th century.
Relocated to Louisiana
The feature film was directed by Antoine Fuqua, whose film “Training Day” (2001) had allowed Denzel Washington to win the Oscar for best actor.
“Emancipation” was originally to be shot in Georgia, but the production was relocated to Louisiana after the adoption of a controversial law by this state in the American South, which aimed, according to several NGOs, to discourage the vote of African-Americans.
(AFP)