Will Smith further immersed himself back in the public eye on Monday night when he appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. The actor sat down for an in-depth interview about his current state of mind, the upcoming film Emancipation, and the infamous slap during the Academy Awards this past year.
Noah, who recently released a new special titled I Wish You Would on Netflix, spoke to the Oscar winner about his life since the incident when he slapped Chris Rock. “That was a horrific night, as you can imagine. There’s many nuances and complexities to it. But at the end of the day, I just — I lost it, you know?” Smith said.
“I was going through something that night, you know? Not that that justifies my behavior at all – it was a lot of things,” he continued. “It was the little boy that watched his father beat up his mother, you know? All of that just bubbled up in that moment. That is not who I want to be.”
The show’s host then discussed his personal opinion regarding the event at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. He said that in a conversation with a contemporary, the Philadelphia native’s true character came out; to which Noah disagreed, saying he “just stood up for the wrong thing at the wrong time, in a way.”
Smith responded, saying that his reaction to Rock’s joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith, wasn’t singular. He was dealing with several things both in his career as well as his personal life. That night, everything just came to a head.
“I was gone,” Smith said to Noah. “That was a rage that had been bottled for a really long time.”
The WILL author also discussed Emancipation, which premieres this weekend. The film was based off of the photo of ‘Whipped Peter,’ the shocking image that appeared in an issue of Harper’s Weekly in 1863. “First seeing that image was one of the things that really got me excited to explore this, because you see the image, but you don’t know who he is,” Smith said.
“American slavery was one of the most brutal aspects of human history,” he added. “It is hard to understand the level of human cruelty.”
This transparent sit down with Noah came just a day after his interview with Fox 5 in D.C., saying that he fully understands if audiences aren’t ready to see his new film just yet. “I would absolutely respect that and allow them their space to not be ready,” he said to Kevin McCarthy.
Emancipation debuts in select theaters this Friday before premiering on Apple TV+ on Dec. 9. Watch Smith’s interview on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah in full, below.
