Will Smith apologized again to Chris Rock for slapping him during the transmission of Oscar awards. In a new video, the actor said his behavior was “unacceptable” and that he tried to approach the comedian about the incident, but was told Rock wasn’t ready.
“There’s not a part of me that thinks that was the right way to behave at the time,” Smith said in the less than six-minute video posted Friday.
“I am deeply sorry and trying to be sorry without being ashamed of myself,” he added. To Rock he said, “I’m here when you’re ready to talk.”
Smith, seated in a polo shirt and white cap, spoke directly into a camera, answering preselected questions about his behavior at the Academy Awards on March 27. That day he slapped presenter Rock after the comedian made a reference about Jada Pinkett’s alopecia, Smith’s wife.
The actor also apologized to Rock’s family and especially to his mother, Rosalie, who was horrified to see her son injured and commented to U.S. Weekly that “when (Smith) slapped Chris, he slapped all of us. He really he slapped me.”
Will Smith also apologized to Tony Rock, Chris’s younger brother.
“I didn’t realize how many people were injured at the time,” he said.
In turn, Smith also apologized to his family “for the pain he caused us all” and to his fellow Oscar nominees for having “stolen and tarnished his moment.”
He mentioned Questlove by name; it was the victory of the documentary of the musician and director for “Summer of Soul (…O, when the revolution could not be televised)” that was interrupted by the slap. Rock took the stage to present the documentary award.
Smith also said his wife did nothing to encourage his slap. “Jada had nothing to do with it,” she assured. “I made a decision on my own.”
The wife has alopecia areata, a hair loss disorder.
After the altercation, the Motion Picture Academy banned Smith from attending the Oscars or any other of his events. for 10 years. Smith apologized to Rock in a statement after the Oscars in which he acknowledged that he was “out of line and that I was wrong.”
“Sorry, it’s really not enough,” Smith said in the video, adding that he’s hurt that he hasn’t lived up to the fans. “Letting people down is my core trauma,” he emphasized.
