Will Smith Addressed The Oscar Slap In An Emotional Video & Chris Rock Won't Talk To Him
Will Smith has finally come out to answer some of the burning questions surrounding the infamous Oscars slap from last March, and it sounds like he still hasn't been able to clear things up with Chris Rock.
Smith posted an emotional video about the incident to YouTube on Friday, some four months after he marched up on stage and smacked Rock for joking about wife Jada Pinkett Smith's bald head.
In the new video, Smith essentially interviews himself and answers three big questions that he says he's been getting a lot since the incident.
He apologized once again for the slap, which got him banned from the Academy Awards and urged his fans to stick with him going forward.
"If you hang on, I promise we'll be able to be friends again," he said.
Here are the three issues he addressed, and what he had to say about each.
On apologizing to Chris Rock
Smith slapped Rock less than an hour before he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, and he was pretty defiant when he took the stage that night in March.
On Friday, he said he didn't apologize during his Oscars speech because he was "fogged out by that point" and everything was "fuzzy" for him.
He added that he reached out to Chris Rock afterward and "the message that came back is that he's not ready to talk."
“I will say to you, Chris, I apologize to you. My behaviour was unacceptable and I’m here whenever you’re ready to talk.”
Smith then went on to apologize to Rock and Rock's entire family, including his mother and his brother, Tony.
"Tony Rock is my man and this is probably irreparable," he said.
He added that his actions on Oscar night were not the "optimal" way to handle a "feeling of disrespect or insults," and he doesn't think he behaved the right way.
It's been a minute...
On Jada Pinkett Smith's reaction to the joke
The whole Oscars incident erupted after Rock joked about Jada Pinkett Smith's bald head and suggested she should be in GI Jane 2.
Pinkett Smith rolled her eyes after the joke, and some have wondered if that pushed Smith to step up and do something drastic.
But he insisted on Friday that it wasn't the case.
"I made a choice on my own," he said. "Jada had nothing to do with it."
Smith apologized to his family for bringing "heat" on all of them, and to the other nominees at the show, including Questlove, who won an award right after the slap.
"It really breaks my heart to have stolen and tarnished your moment," he said.
On letting fans down
Finally, Smith apologized to everyone he let down with his actions.
"Disappointing people is my central trauma," he said.
"I am deeply remorseful and I am trying to be remorseful without being ashamed of myself," he explained. "I'm human and I made a mistake. I’m trying not to think of myself as a piece of sh*t."
Rock didn't say much about the slap after it happened, but he's cracked a few jokes since and appears to be getting more comfortable with talking about it.
He didn't immediately address Smith's apology on Friday.
