Will Smith Describes His Personal ‘Emotional Emancipation’ Post-Oscars Slap as He Promotes His Historical Action Film
The “slap heard around the world.” Just say those words, and anyone will know they are in reference to Will Smith walking onstage at the 94th Academy Awards and slapping comedian Chris Rock across the face — on live TV.
Rock was presenting for the Best Documentary Feature when he made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. Will didn’t find it the least bit funny.
Now, the 54-year-old describes his personal “emotional emancipation” as he promotes his historical action film, Emancipation.
Will Smith’s infamous slap at the 2022 Oscars
In March 2022, Smith and his wife sat in the audience at the Academy Awards. Jada, who suffers from alopecia and shaves her head, was the subject of Rock’s joke. Her husband, in a fit of anger, walked up onstage and used profanity and violence in her defense.
Not only did fellow actors in the audience sit there in shock, but the internet went wild. Will later posted an apology to Rock, saying that his behavior was “unacceptable.” Now that he is starring in a new film, Emancipation, Will is back in the spotlight again, and the film’s release had been called into question.
The movie tells the story of a man’s escape from slavery to fight for the Union Army. Smith’s performance is nothing less than spectacular, according to critics. Given the situation at the Oscars, the film’s release was going to be pushed back to 2023. Then, Apple decided against it.
Director Antoine Fuqua had to find a way to handle the possibility of a delay in release. He told Vanity Fair exactly what he did to manage the situation: “It was always a full conversation with Apple. They were very sensitive to myself, to Will, to all the people who worked on the movie.”
Fuqua added, “There was never a conversation about the movie not coming out. It was more about, ‘We’re assessing everything. We’re seeing what people are saying.’ They were very careful about it.” The director elaborated, “We showed the film to some people and their reactions were really positive, and we discussed it along the way.”
Will Smith alluded to the slap during interviews for ‘Emancipation’
So, what did the actor himself have to say? As anyone can imagine, it can’t be easy to have an unfortunate personal incident viewed and talked about by millions of people, especially for someone as famous as Will.
The Emancipation star opened up about what happened. Will said, “There’s been a certain amount of emotional emancipation that I’ve been forced to discover within myself and in my faith in these last few months.” The Fresh Prince of Bel Air actor had been laying low since the infamous slap. He called it “self-induced isolation.”
When Emancipation premiered, Will needed to promote it. This meant once again facing the public and facing intense scrutiny.
‘Emancipation’ Director Antoine Fuqua’s thoughts on Will Smith’s slap
Naturally, Fuqua had a lot to say about “Slapgate.” He acknowledged the controversy surrounding what happened all those months ago. The director said, “It didn’t feel real to me at all, because I was with Will for two years and I haven’t met a nicer human being.”
That doesn’t come as much of a surprise, since Will has always been known to be a respectful person. Fuqua went on to say, “He was kind to everyone on the set.” It turns out that the director has also met Rock. He had good things to say about him too.
According to Fuqua, “Chris is a good guy too. I’ve spent time with Chris, and I think it’s an unfortunate event and I hope we can move forward and get past it.” He made it known that not only does he feel that Emancipation is bigger than that fateful moment, but also how he hopes “Chris and Will find a way to sit together publicly, privately, whatever, and make amends.”
