July 29, 2022
Will Smith Responds to Oscars Incident and Apologizes to Chris Rock
Will Smith has finally spoken up about the now infamous face slap at the Oscars incident.
The former rapper took to his Instagram account on Friday to respond to questions that have been posed to him regarding the controversy that took place at the Academy Awards ceremony. Smith went onstage at The Oscars in March and slapped Chris Rock in the face after a comment he made towards his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
In the video, he responds to several questions that were asked of him regarding the incident.
At the start of the video, Smith writes, “It’s been a minute. Over the last few months, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and personal work. You asked a lot of fair questions that I wanted to take some time to answer.”
The first question that he reads asks him why didn’t he apologize to Rock when he did accept his Oscar.
“I was fogged out by that point,” Smith says. “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’re ready to talk.”
As the actor reads several more questions, he does specifically apologize to Rock’s mother because he said he saw a video of her commenting on the incident. He also apologizes and acknowledges his friendship with Chris’ brother, Tony. Smith mentions that he and Tony were close prior to the incident.
“We had a great relationship. Tony Rock was my man and this is probably irreparable.”
He also apologizes to his family for bringing the heat of the situation to them. When questioned if Jada said anything to him that prompted him to go onstage, he stated it was his decision and his alone.
He goes on to say that his reaction should not have been what it was and he will try to “unpack” that later.
“I’m not going to try to 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,” he says. “There’s no part of me that thinks that is the optimal way to handle a feeling of disrespect or insults.”
You can view the full video below:
View this post on Instagram