Featured Image Credit: REUTERS / Alamy Stock Photo
Topics: Celebrity, Will Smith
Lisa McLoughlin
Zoe Kravitz has spoken out about the backlash she faced after commenting on Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at this year’s Oscars.
At the time, the incident sparked a storm of discourse online, inviting opinions from comedians, actors and other celebrities across the world, as well as being the source of hundreds of memes.
In the aftermath, the Batman star took to Instagram and shared two images from the cinematic event, with the caption: "Here's a picture of my dress at the award show where we are apparently assaulting people on stage now.
"And here is a picture of my dress at the party after the award show - where we are apparently screaming profanities and assaulting people on stage now."
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A commenter then asked if the Big Little Lies actor supported Smith defending his wife after Rock made a joke about her hair, to which she responded with a one-word: “Nope”.
Following her commentary, her name began trending on Twitter and social media users relentlessly came for the 33-year-old by digging into her past for so-called problematic moments.
They predominately took issue with her past romance with troubled star Ezra Miller, as well as her friendship with Alexander Wang, who has faced a slew of sexual assault allegations, which the designer has denied.
In the midst of the social media storm, comments Zoe made about a then-underage Jaden Smith resurfaced and were labelled ‘inappropriate’ by users.
Now addressing the controversy for the first time, Kravitz said she wished that she 'had handled that differently.'
Speaking with WSJ. Magazine, she shared: “I’m torn about what to say right now, because I’m supposed to just talk about it; I have very complicated feelings around it. I wish I had handled that differently. And that’s OK.
“It’s a scary time to have an opinion or to say the wrong thing or to make controversial art or statements or thoughts or anything.
“It’s mostly scary because art is about conversation. That should, in my opinion, always be the point. The internet is the opposite of conversation. The internet is people putting things out and not taking anything in.”
Kravitz shared that she’s now taking the approach not to 'express myself through a caption or a tweet' choosing to let her work speak for her.
She added: "I was reminded that I’m an artist. Being an artist is not about everybody loving you or everyone thinking you’re hot. It’s about expressing something that will hopefully spark a conversation or inspire people or make them feel seen."
Kravitz's candour comes after Smith publicly apologised to Chris Rock for slapping him at the 94th Oscars via YouTube late last month.
It was the first time that Smith has addressed the now infamous incident that led to him being banned from Academy events for 10 years.
In a video titled 'It's been a minute', the King Richard star 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."
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