Featured Image Credit: Will Smith/YouTube
Topics: Celebrity, News, Will Smith, Chris Rock, Oscars
Shola Lee
Topics: Celebrity, News, Will Smith, Chris Rock, Oscars
Will Smith shared a video on his YouTube channel today, 29 July, apologising to Chris Rock.
The video – titled 'It's been a minute' – sees the King Richard star apologise for slapping Chris Rock at the 94th Oscars and answering questions from fans.
It's the first time that Smith has addressed the now infamous incident that led to him being banned from Academy events for 10 years.
For those of you unaware of the altercation, which seems pretty hard to imagine but we'll explain nonetheless, Will slapped Chris after the comedian made an insensitive joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
The joke likened Jada, who suffers from alopecia, to G.I Jane – a character with a shaved head.
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Now, Will has addressed the fallout from his actions at length, starting his video with a few typed-out words, which read: "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."
Will then sat down, alone in his home, and proceeded to explain himself, the first question asked why he didn't apologise to Chris.
Will explained: "I was fogged out by that point. 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 apologise to you. My behaviour was unacceptable and I'm here whenever you're ready to talk."
The Oscar-winning actor went on to extend that apology to Chris's family: "I want to apologise to Chris's mother. I saw an interview that Chris's mother did and, you know, that was one of the things about that moment I just didn't realise, and, you know, I wasn't thinking, but how many people got hurt in that moment. So I want to apologise to Chris's mother.
"I want to apologise to Chris's family. Specifically, Tony Rock [Chris' younger brother]. You know, we had a great relationship. You know, Tony Rock was my man. And this is probably irreparable."
Will went on to explain how he'd spent the last three months replaying and trying to understand the nuances of what happened, and that while he wouldn't be unpacking everything in this video, he assured: "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."
He went on to clear up whether Jada has 'asked him to do something', to which Will said that no she did not, and that the choice to slap Chris was entirely his own.
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