LOS ANGELES — When Will Smith took the stage Wednesday night at Westwood’s Village Theatre to introduce his new slavery thriller “Emancipation,” the nearly full house cheered and took out their phones to capture the moment. The actor had just finished striding the premiere’s red carpet, flashing his thousand-megawatt smile for photographers alongside his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, and their three children, Trey, Jaden and Willow.
“So far, so good,” Smith said, responding to a question about how it felt returning to the spotlight eight months after he struck presenter Chris Rock on the Dolby Theatre stage at the Oscars.
In other words, the premiere of “Emancipation,” which opened in select theaters Friday before arriving Dec. 9 on Apple TV+, appeared to largely be business as usual. Smith, the film’s star and producer, hit his marks to extol the story of an enslaved man escaping to reunite with his wife and children after President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. At the film’s premiere, the friendly audience cheered mostly on cue.
