Will Smith Understands People May Not Be Ready To See Him Onscreen Again After The Oscars Slap
Will Smith is still reminding us of how he greeted Chris Rock with a five-finger face kiss at the Oscars many moons ago. In the aftermath, he received disciplinary action from the Academy, including being banned from attending ceremonies for the next decade. Anyone else would sit down, shut up and enjoy being rich at home for ten years. But not Will. He has a new film coming out this Friday titled Emancipation, which he probably hopes will become the Roots of the new millennium. Not a chance Will, which he understands and admits people may not be ready to see him onscreen once again just yet.
According to Insider, Will was interviewed on Fox 5’s Good Day DC, and of course, the damn slap came up because why wouldn’t it? Will hopes that we no longer care about what happened back in March, and let me just reassure you; we don’t. However, these are the consequences of your poor choices, and he realizes when he slapped Chris, he may as well have slapped everyone he’s ever worked with, including Emancipation director Antoine Fuqua. And audiences may choose to sit this one out because of all the drama surrounding the Oscars slap.
“I completely understand that if someone is not ready, I would absolutely respect that and allow them their space to not be ready,” he said.
Smith added that his “deepest concern” is if his involvement in the film will damage his collaborators’ reputations and their chances of being recognized by Oscars voters for their work on the film.
“Antoine has done what I think is the greatest work of his career,”
“The people on this team have done some of the best work of their entire careers, and my deepest hope is that my actions don’t penalize my team,” he said.
The actor added that he hoped “the material” and “the timeliness of the story” would be what people focus on, not him.
“I’m hoping that the good that can be done would open people’s hearts at a minimum to see and recognize and support the incredible artists in and around this film.”
Well, Will, instead of starring in a film called Emancipation you need to emancipate yourself from the public eye for a minute so we can have time to finally forget about this nonsense and move on for good.
Pic: INSTARImages