“There was this rage that was locked up in me for a very long time
,” said Will Smith on the set of the Daily Show on the Comedy Central channel when he came to promote his new film
Emancipation
.
For the first time, the actor spoke publicly about the affair of the slap he gave to Chris Rock during the last Oscars ceremony, in front of millions of viewers.
He explains this fit of rage by
“confusion”
.
Will Smith admits that he was going through “
a bad patch during this evening.
“
But that in no way justifies what I did,”
he explains.
He says he was confronted by his 9-year-old grand-nephew.
The latter asked him why he had hit the presenter of the Oscars.
“It was confusing.
I do not want to say too much not to add even more incomprehension”,
he declared in front of the presenter of the show, Trevor Noah.
Read also“It hurt me”: Chris Rock evokes for the first time the slap of Will Smith
“I felt like I was back to being that little boy watching his father beat his mother, and it all came flooding back in that moment. It's not the person I want to be
,” says the 54-year-old actor.
Will Smith regrets his gesture and especially the negative impact it could have for the film.
The slap would be a brake for certain spectators who would not be ready to see it in a film.
“I understand how shocking it may have been for people,”
he says.
Then emphasizing that he was worried about the film crew.
The director of
Emancipation
, Antoine Fuqua
“has made the most beautiful film of his career in my opinion.
The people who worked on this film gave their best, and my deepest wish and that my actions do not penalize these people.
Right now, it's the only thing I'm working for
,” he said.
The Daily Show presenter stressed that no one was immune to making a mistake, recalling that the press had not been kind to Will Smith and his wife.