Will Smith Opens Up About Chris Rock Oscars Slap in New Interview

Will Smith is opening up about his infamous slap of Chris Rock in a new interview.

On Monday (Nov. 28), The Daily Show with Trevor Noah aired their latest episode featuring the award-winning rapper-actor. Will is promoting his new film Emancipation but also spoke on the slap that essentially changed his life.

“That was a horrific night, as you can imagine,” Will Smith explained. “There’s plenty of nuances, complexities to it. At the end of the day, I lost it. I guess what I would say [is] you just never know what somebody is going through … I was going through something that night. Not that that justifies my behavior at all.”

“We just gotta be nice to each other, man,” Will Smith continued. “It’s hard. I guess the thing that was most painful for me, is I took my hard and made it hard for other people. I understood the idea when they say hurt people hurt people … That’s not who I wanna be.”

“I understand how shocking it was to people,” Smith added. “I was gone, dude. That was a rage that had been bottled for a really long time.”

Will Smith’s reputation has been somewhat tainted since he walked on stage and violently slapped Chris Rock for making an insensitive joke about Will’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith during the live airing of the 2022 Oscars. Will Smith apologized on social media days after the incident. Four months later, in July, he broke his silence in a video he released answering questions about the infamous moment.

“I was fogged out by that point,” Will Smith explained. “It’s all fuzzy. I’ve reached out to Chris and the message that came back is that he’s not ready to talk and when he is, he will reach out. So I will say to you, Chris, I apologize to you. My behavior was unacceptable and I’m here whenever you are ready to talk.”

It does not appear the public apology was enough to mend fences with Chris Rock who blasted the apology days later during a show at the 02 Arena.

See Will Smith’s Interview on The Daily Show With Trevor Noah Below

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