Will Smith is finally directly addressing that infamous Chris Rock slap incident.
The 53-year-old actor posted a deeply personal and emotional video message to social media on Friday (July 29). In the video, he broke his silence on the incident, voicing an apology to Chris and clarifying his wife Jada’s involvement. If you can recall, Will slapped Chris at the Academy Awards onstage earlier this year after Chris made jokes about Jada.
Now, Will revealed that he had tried to reach out to Chris but “the message that came back” was that Chris was not yet ready to talk and would reach out to Will when he is. Will went on to apologize profusely in the video, saying:
“It was all fuzzy. I will say to you, Chris, I apologize to you. My behavior was unacceptable and I’m here whenever you’re ready to talk.”
The Academy Award-winning star stated that Jada did not ask him to slap Chris, and shared that he has apologized to her and their family for “the heat” that his actions brought upon them:
‘I made a choice on my own from my own experiences, from my own history with Chris.
Jada had nothing to do with it.”
He opened up about how he has been feeling since that night, confessing:
“I hate when I let people down. So it hurts. It hurts me psychologically and emotionally to know I didn’t live up to people’s image and impression of me.
And the work I’m trying to do is, I am deeply remorseful and I’m trying to be remorseful without being ashamed of myself. I’m human and I made a mistake, and I’m trying not to think of myself as a piece of s**t.
I know it was confusing, I know it was shocking, but I promise you I am deeply devoted and committed to putting light and love and joy into the world. And, you know, if you hand on, I promise we’ll be able to be friends again.”
Will also revealed that he’s been trying to understanding all that happened in that moment:
“I spent the last three months replaying and understanding the nuances and the complexities of what happened in that moment.
I’m not going to try and unpack all of that right now. But I can say to all of you there is no part of me that thinks that was the right way to behave in that moment. There’s no part of me that thinks that’s the optimal way to handle a feeling of disrespect or insults.”
And he also addressed how it affected his fellow nominees, touching on it having “tarnished” Questlove’s moment. The incident happened right before Questlove was announced as an Oscar winner. Will said:
“I can still see Questlove’s eyes. It happened on Questlove’s award and, you know, it’s like ‘I’m sorry’ really isn’t sufficient.”
