Will Smith, left, Courtney B. Vance and Angela Bassett attend the African-American Film Critics Association Awards on Wednesday, March 1, 2023, at Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills, California
| Photo Credit: Richard Shotwell
Almost a year after slapping comedian Chris Rock during last year’s Oscars ceremony for a joke on his wife, actor Will Smith recently made his first award show appearance since the incident.
According to E! News, Smith took the stage to accept the Beacon Award at the African American Film Critics Association Awards for his role in Emancipation. After picking up the honour, he reflected on the toll the Apple TV+ film, in which he portrays an enslaved man named Peter in the 1860s, took on him.
” Emancipation was the most individual difficult film of my entire career… It’s really difficult to transport a modern mind to that time period. It’s difficult to imagine that level of inhumanity,” recalled Smith.
He attended the premiere of the film with his wife Jada Pinkett Smith and their three kids: Trey Smith, Jaden Smith and Willow Smith. Since the Oscars incident, the 54-year-old actor has largely stayed out of the spotlight.
Following the March 2022 incident, the Smith family remained united. Chris made a joke about Jada, who was in the audience and has spoken about her alopecia, having a shaved head while presenting an award at the presentation. Will took the stage after Chris made the statement, slapped him, and said, “Keep my wife’s name out of your f–king mouth.”
Following this, the actor received a 10-year ban from all Academy events after picking up the Best Actor Oscar later in the evening. Since the incident, both Jada and Will have reflected on the night.
Following the incident, the Academy received a lot of flak for lack of immediate action and the organisers created a new “crisis team” head of the 95th Academy Awards. Meanwhile, The motion picture academy’s president Janet Yang recently said that the organization’s response to the slap was inadequate
