Actor Will Smith has broken his months-long silence on the infamous moment he slapped Chris Rock at the Academy Awards, saying he has reached out to Rock but the comedian still “hasn’t he’s ready to talk.”
Smith took the stage and slammed Rock, who was hosting the awards, after the comedian made a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head. She suffers from alopecia.
“Keep my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth,” he yelled after resuming his seat.
A visibly shaken Rock continued with the ceremony, and Smith won the best actor award for his role in King Richard.
That was in March. Smith was subsequently banned from the Oscars for ten years, although the Academy did not revoke his award.
“Over the past few months, I’ve been doing a lot of personal thinking and work,” Smith told fans in a video posted to his YouTube channel overnight.
“You asked a lot of fair questions that I wanted to take some time to answer.”
He ran through several of those questions, the first of which was, “Why didn’t you apologize to Chris in your acceptance speech?”
“It was blacked out at the time. Everything is confusing,” Smith said.
“I have contacted Chris, and the message he got back is that he is not ready to talk, and when he is, he will.
“I’ll tell you Chris, I apologize. My behavior was unacceptable and I’m here whenever you’re ready to talk.
“I want to apologize to Chris’ mom. I saw an interview that Chris’ mom did, and you know, that was one of the things at the time, I didn’t realize, I wasn’t thinking how many people went hurt at that time. So I want to apologize to Chris’ mom, to his family, specifically to Tony Rock.”
Tony Rock, and actor and comedian, is Chris’ younger brother.
“We had a great relationship. You know, Tony Rock was my man. And that’s probably beyond repair,” Smith continued.
“I spent the last three months replaying and understanding the nuances and complexities of what happened at that time.
“I’m not going to try to unpack all of that right now, but I can tell you all that there’s no part of me that thinks that was the right way to behave at that time. There’s no part of me that thinks that this is the optimal way to handle a feeling of disrespect or insults.”
The next question asked if Pinkett Smith had asked her husband to do anything after rolling his eyes at Rock’s joke, before Smith stormed the stage.
“No,” was Smith’s terse reply.
“I made a choice on my own, based on my own experiences, my history with Chris. I had nothing to do with it anymore. I’m sorry baby. I want to apologize to my kids and my family for the heat I’ve put on us brought to all
“To all my fellow nominees – this is a community. It’s like I won because you voted for me. It really breaks my heart to steal and screw up your moment. I can still see Questlove’s eyes. It happened with the award of Questlove and…sorry, not really enough.”
Questlove, a musician, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary for Summer of the soul. His award was announced immediately after the onstage incident between Smith and Rock.
“What would you say to the people who looked at you before the slap, or to the people who said you let them down?” was the next question.
“One, disappointing people is my central trauma. I hate it when I disappoint people. So it hurts me psychologically and emotionally to know that I didn’t live up to the image and impression people had,” Smith replied.
“The work I’m trying to do is that I’m deeply remorseful, and I’m trying to be remorseful without being ashamed of myself. i am human And I was wrong and I’m trying not to think of myself as shit.
“So I would say to these people: I know it was confusing, I know it was shocking. But I promise you that I am deeply dedicated and committed to bringing light and love and joy into the world. And you know, if you hang in there, you I promise we can be friends again.”
At that point, the screen faded to black and the video ended.
Smith’s public statements come days after Rock broke his own silence about the incident, addressing it during stand-up comedy shows in New York and New Jersey.
“Yeah, that shit hurt the motherfucker. But I shook that shit off and went to work the next day,” Rock said while performing alongside fellow comedians Kevin Hart and Dave Chappelle.
“Anyone who says ‘words hurt’ has never been punched in the face.”
He also stated that he was “not a victim” and that he was not “going to the hospital to cut paper.”
Rock previously spoke about the slap during a UK show in May, when he joked that he had “got most of my hearing back”.
“People expect me to talk about bulls***. I’m not going to talk about it right now. I’ll get there eventually, on Netflix,” he said with a laugh.