Will Smith finally opened up about his confrontation with Chris Rock nearly eight months after the infamous Oscar Slap at the award show.
During the eve of the 94th Academy Awards, on March 28, 2022, many people witnessed an iconic moment where Will Smith struck Chris across the face when the comedian cracked a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. Initially, everyone was laughing including Smith, but after a while he strode up to rock, went on stage, and slapped Chris.
After smacking, the actor said, “keep my wife’s name outta your ****ing mouth.”
Later, the Man in Black star had to face heavy criticism and backlash due to his extremely aggressive reaction. Many people including his fans, fellow actors, and colleagues slammed his violent act.
In his recent interview with Trevor Noah’s The Daily Show, where he came to promote his new Apple TV + film, Emancipation, the 54-year-old actor, Will openly talked about his slap and addressed his apology.
While referencing that the actor had been laying low after that Oscars incident, Noah said,
“You know, it’s been a while since I last saw you; it’s been a while since many people have seen you.”
“Yeah, I’ve been away,” Smith said and then turned his face towards the audience to ask them how they all were doing.
“I can only imagine what it’s been like for you because it’s been weird for many of us. What has the journey been like since that day?” Noah asked him.
“That was a horrific night, as you can imagine. There’s many nuances and complexities to it, as you know. But at the end of the day, I just lost it,” the pursuit of happyness actor replied.
Smith also revealed that he was not doing well that night and going through something and when Rock joked about his wife it triggered him a lot.
“I guess what I would say is that you just never know what somebody’s going through,” Smith shared with Trevor.
“You know, in the audience right now, you’re sitting next to strangers. And somebody’s mother died last week, you know. Somebody’s child is sick. Somebody just lost their job. Somebody just found out their spouse cheated… You just don’t know what’s going on with people.”
He further said, “I was going through something that night. And not that that justifies my behavior at all. You’re asking what did I learn and it’s that we just got to be nice to each other, man. It’s hard. And I guess the thing that was most painful for me is that I took my hard and made it hard for other people.”
Noah said to the award-winning actor that although he did the wrong thing at the very wrong time, it could be the response that resulted from the things he went through in his personal life.
“It was a lot of things. It was the little boy that watched his father beat up his mother. It’s all of that just bubbled up at that moment. It’s just – that’s not who I want to be,” Smith said.
The 38-year-old Daily Show host also said that as a human we all do mistakes and like us Will also made a mistake, even though that shocked everyone because all the people who witnessed that scene had no idea that Smith could react that way.
“I also think it’s not who you are,” he also said. “I also speak for people when I say; I don’t want that to define you. I don’t think that should define you.”
Smith answered, “That was one of the big things over the last couple of months, you know. That I had to forgive myself for being human.”
At the last, he concluded that as all the humans makes mistakes, he also made a horrible one in his life. However the actor has forgiven himself for the mistake he did.
“I had to forgive myself for being human,” Smith said. “There’s no better than hating the fact that I’m human more than me. I’ve always wanted to be Superman.”
“I’ve always wanted to swoop in and save the damsel in distress and I had to humble down and realize that I’m a flawed human and I still have an opportunity to go out in the world and contribute in a way that fills my heart and hopefully helps other people.”
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Sources: The Daily Show – CBS News
