Academy Award winner Will Smith has now opened up about what went through his mind during the infamous Oscars slap. Appearing on The Daily Show With Trevor Noah (via Variety), Smith described the event, which saw the actor finally walk away with the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in the biographical sports drama King Richard, as “a horrific night.”
“I have been away. What have y’all been doing? That was a horrific night, as you can imagine. There’s many nuances and complexities to it. But at the end of the day, I just — I lost it, you know?” Smith continued. “I was going through something that night, you know? Not that that justifies my behavior at all… It was a lot of things. It was the little boy that watched his father beat up his mother, you know? All of that just bubbled up in that moment. That is not who I want to be.”
Now known as “the slap heard around the world,” Smith took to the stage during the 94th Academy Awards ceremony and struck comedian Chris Rock across the face after he made a joke at Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith's expense. Smith has since been trying to claw back his public image and has now been banned from the Oscars gala and other Academy events for the next decade.
Smith then offered some insight into what caused him to hit Rock, saying that it came from a rage that had “been bottled for a really long time.”
"I was gone. That was a rage that had been bottled for a really long time. My nephew is nine. He is the sweetest little boy. We came home. He had stayed up late to see his uncle Will and we are sitting in my kitchen, and he is on my lap, and he is holding the Oscar and he is just like, 'Why did you hit that man, Uncle Will?' Damn it. Why are you trying to Oprah me?"
Smith has since apologized to Chris Rock, and while he is now doing what he can to confront the incident, he completely understands if audiences are not ready to see him on screen again just yet.
Will Smith Will Next Lead Emancipation from Director Antoine Fuqua
Following his Oscar win, Will Smith will lead the upcoming Emancipation from director Antoine Fuqua. Smith stars as an enslaved man named Peter who, after being whipped nearly to death, escapes from a Louisiana plantation, outwitting cold-blooded hunters, as he makes his way North, where he joins the Union Army.
Starring Ben Foster, Steven Ogg, Charmaine Bingwa, Gilbert Owuor, Mustafa Shakir, and Grant Harvey alongside Smith, there had been whispers that Emancipation could see Smith taking to the stage once again to receive another Best Actor Oscar. However, Smith reportedly knows "there's no chance of that now,” but will “do everything I can to make sure everyone gets seen in the light that they deserve."
Emancipation is scheduled to be released in select cinemas on December 2, 2022, before its streaming release on December 9, 2022, by Apple TV+.