At the 2022 Oscars in March, The Method Williams actor took the stage and slapped comedian Chris Rock after he compared his wife Jada Pinkett Smith – who suffers from alopecia – to GI Jan. After avoiding the spotlight for a while, Will Smith made an appearance on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah on Monday (28 Nov 22) to promote his new historical drama Emancipation.
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Nevertheless, it is indeed the famous slap that was discussed during the interview.
“It was a horrible night, as you can imagine. There are many nuances and complexities to this. But at the end of the day, I just – lost my mind, you know? I was going through something that night. Not that it justifies my behavior at all… It was a lot of things. He was the little boy who watched his father beat his mother, you know? It all boiled over at that point. That’s not what I want to be,” said Will Smith.
He then shared a story about how that outburst affected his extended family. “I left. It was a rage that had been bottled up for a very long time, the comedian continued. My nephew is nine years old. He’s the nicest little boy. We went back home. He had stayed up late to see his Uncle Will and we were sitting in my kitchen, he was on my lap, he was holding the Oscar and he was like, ‘Why did you hit that man, Uncle Will?
Will Smith apologized to Academy members and peers during his Best Actor acceptance speech during the film event and followed up with a lengthy apology on Instagram. He also resigned from the Academy and was subsequently banned from attending the Oscars for 10 years.
Elsewhere in the interview, the actor discussed Emancipation, and how he decided to play a slave named Peter who escapes from a Louisiana plantation after being whipped nearly to death.
“American slavery was one of the most brutal aspects of human history… It is difficult to comprehend the level of human cruelty. My daughter (Willow Smith) asked me, “Dad, do we really need another slavery movie?” I said, ‘Baby, I promise you I won’t make a movie about slavery. It’s a movie about freedom,'” he added.