Will Smith Gives 1st Talk Show Interview Since ‘Horrific Night’ Of Oscars Slap: ‘That’s Not Who I Want To Be’

Eight months after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock onstage astatine the Academy Awards, helium made his archetypal post-scandal speech amusement quality connected The Daily Show With Trevor Noah connected Nov. 28. Of course, Will discussed the situation, portion besides promoting his caller movie, Emancipation. “That was a horrific night, arsenic you tin imagine,” Will confirmed. “There’s galore nuances and complexities to it, you know, but astatine the extremity of the day, I conscionable mislaid it. I conjecture what I would accidental is you conscionable ne'er cognize what somebody’s going through. You conscionable don’t cognize what’s going connected with people. And I was going done thing that night. Not that that justifies my behaviour astatine all, but you’re asking what I learned, and it’s that we conscionable got to beryllium bully to each other, man.”

Will slapping Chris was triggered by a gag the comedian made portion onstage astatine the Oscars. The gag was astatine the disbursal of Will’s wife, Jada Pinkett- Smith, erstwhile helium said, “Jada, can’t hold for G.I. Jane 2.” The notation was owed Jada’s shaved head, which is simply a effect of her alopecia (hair loss) diagnosis. Will flew retired of his spot and slapped Chris crossed the look portion screaming, “Keep my wife’s sanction retired of your f***ing mouth!”

Will slapping Chris astatine the Oscars. (Rob Latour/Shutterstock)

In his interrogation with Trevor Noah, Will said that determination were “a batch of things that conscionable bubbled up” successful the infinitesimal that led him to slap Chris. “That’s not who I privation to be,” helium confirmed, aboriginal adding, “That was a rage that had been bottled up for a truly agelong time.” He besides started tearing up erstwhile helium recalled coming location to his nine-year-old nephew, who was waiting up for him aft the grant show.

“He is the sweetest small boy,” Will gushed. “We came location and helium had stayed up precocious to spot his Uncle Will, and we’re sitting successful my kitchen, and he’s holding [my] Oscar and he’s like, ‘Why did you deed that man, Uncle Will?’ It was a mess. I don’t privation to spell excessively acold into it to springiness radical much to understand, but…” Will has been retired of the spotlight successful the months since the incident, and said that during that clip he’s been moving connected “forgiving [himself] for being human.”

One time aft the Oscars, Will publicly apologized to Chris successful a written Instagram post. He yet resigned from the Academy owed to his actions, and has been banned from the Oscars for 10 years arsenic punishment. It wasn’t until the extremity of July 2022 that Chris spoke publicly astir the situation. He erstwhile again apologized to Chris, but revealed that, astatine that point, the comedian was not consenting to speech one-on-one. It’s unclear if they’ve spoken since.