Will Smith says he was “going through something” the night he slapped comedian Chris Rock on stage at the Oscars, as “bottled rage” and a mix of emotions bubbled to the surface.
In his first full interview since the jaw-dropping incident at the Academy Awards in March, Smith appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.
When asked about that night and the aftermath, Smith told Noah “I just — I just lost it”.
“That was a horrific night as you can imagine; there’s many nuances and complexities to it, you know,” he admitted.
“But at the end of the day, I just — I lost it, you know, and I guess what I would say, you just never know what somebody’s going through.”
Smith added: “I guess I was going through something that night, not that that justifies my behaviour at all.”
The Oscar-winning actor said a “lot of things” contributed to him walking onto the stage and slapping Rock who had joked about Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s bald head (the actress suffers the hair loss condition alopecia).
“It was a lot of things — it was the little boy that watched his father beat up his mother.
“All of that just bubbled up in that moment.”
But he said “that’s not who I want to be”, to which Noah responded, “I don’t think that’s who you are; everyone can make a mistake, in my honest opinion”.
‘Hurt people hurt people’
Smith said he understood how shocking his behaviour was for people.
The actor was later banned from the Oscars for 10 years, and resigned from the Academy.
“I was gone. That was a rage that had been bottled for a really long time,” he said.
Later that night, after winning the Oscar for Best Actor for his role in King Richard, his nine-year-old nephew questioned the slap.
“We came home and he had stayed up late to see his Uncle Will, and we’re sitting in my kitchen, and he’s on my lap and he’s holding the Oscar, and he’s just like, ‘Why did you hit that man, Uncle Will?’
“It was a mess.”
Smith told Noah he understood the often-quoted theory that “hurt people hurt people” and that afterwards he “had to forgive myself for being human”.
“Trust me, there’s nobody that hates the fact that I’m human more than me… I’ve always wanted to be Superman. I’ve always wanted to swoop in and save the damsel in distress.
“And I had to humble down and realise that I’m a flawed human, and I still have an opportunity to go out in the world and contribute in a way that fills my heart and hopefully helps other people.”
Smith was appearing to promote his new movie Emancipation, to be released next week.
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