It was the slap heard around the world: March 27, 2022, an angry Will Smith took to the stage and slapped Chris Rock across the face for making a joke about his wife. All those watching in the audience and at home gasped in shock. How would Will Smith justify his actions, and how would he return from this? For 4 months, the actor has remained silent on the matter, choosing to reflect on his actions in private. Rock, meanwhile, has been on tour, also choosing to mostly stray away from the incident. Finally, just when we were all starting to lose hope of hearing from Smith at all, he sat down to record a personal apology video. Here's what he had to say...
In a YouTube video titled "It's been a minute," Smith sat sitting down seriously in front of the camera, finally ready to address the infamous Oscars moment. "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," the opening screen read.
"Chris, I apologize to you," Smith said after explaining that he had unsuccessfully attempted to reach out to the star. "My behavior was unacceptable, and I'm here whenever you're ready to talk," he continued while holding back tears. "There's no part of me that thinks that's the optimal way to handle a feeling of disrespect or insults." After taking a moment to apologize to Chris's mother and brother, he confirmed that his wife, Jada, had not prompted him to take the stage. "I made a choice on my own, from my own experiences, from my history with Chris. Jada had nothing to do with it. I'm sorry, babe."
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"I promise we'll be able to be friends again," Smith confidently concluded his video, begging the question if Chris feels the same. While he may not have addressed the video directly, Rock took to the stage just hours later as part of his comedy tour and clarified his overall feelings. "If everybody claims to be a victim, then nobody will hear the real victims. Even me getting smacked by Smith… I went to work the next day; I got kids," he said. "Anyone who says words hurt has never been punched in the face." Stay tuned while this story develops...
