Will Smith Explains His Mindset When He Slapped Chris Rock At The Oscars: "Hurt People Hurt People"

Will Smith is out and about promoting the hell out of his new drama, “Emancipation,” which Apple is pushing heavily this awards season. And as you might expect, whenever he is interviewed, not only does he get the chance to talk about the film, but he has to give an explanation/apology for his actions earlier this year at the Oscars when he slapped Chris Rock on stage. But of all the apologies and explanations, thus far, perhaps the most interesting and revelatory is when he discussed it on “The Daily Show.”

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Speaking to Trevor Noah on “The Daily Show,” Will Smith talked quite a bit about what led to the moment when he stepped on stage at the Oscars and physically assaulted Chris Rock. To hear Smith explain, you can see that the joke about Jada Pinkett-Smith, which was the match that lit the fire definitely wasn’t the only thing fueling the explosion. It really does sound like Will Smith was going through some things in his personal life that led to just an eruption against 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 explained. “You just never know what somebody’s going through. You know?… I was going through something that night, you know? Not that that justifies my behavior at all… It’s just hard. I guess the thing that was most painful for me is that I took my ‘hard’ and made it ‘hard’ for other people. It’s like I understood the idea that hurt people hurt people.”

He added, “It was a lot of things. 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.”

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Smith even talked about his immediate mindset after he slapped Chris Rock and what happened at night when he went home. Remember, not only did Will Smith go on stage to assault Rock, but he would go back on stage a short while later to win his first Oscar. 

“I was gone, dude. I was gone. That was a rage that had been bottled for a really long time,” Smith said, “My nephew is nine. He is the sweetest little boy. We came home. He had stayed up late to see his Uncle Will and we are sitting in my kitchen and he is on my lap and he is holding the Oscar and he is just like, ‘Why did you hit that man, Uncle Will?’… It was a mess.”

Regardless of what you think about Will Smith and what happened that night, it would appear the actor isn’t shying away from talking about the controversy. In fact, he seems to be doing his damndest to actually confront it and try to accept everyone’s disappointment and move on. Can people move on? Will people forgive and forget in time for “Emancipation?” We’ll have to wait and see.