Will Smith dishes on Oscars slap controversy on The Daily Show: ‘I lost it’

Will Smith has recently reflected on famous Oscars slap-gate controversy that changed his life as he appeared on The Daily Show With Trevor Noah.

On Monday, the Hancock star was interviewed for the first time since the incident when he smacked Chris Rock onstage after he joked about the actor’s wife Jada-Pinkett Smith’s baldness.

Will, who is currently busy promoting his new movie Emancipation, revealed, “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?”

“I was going through something that night, you know? Not that that justifies my behaviour at all… It was a lot of things,” he told the host.

The Pursuit of Happyness actor 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.”

Elsewhere in the show, Will also talked about his new historical drama based on true events regarding extreme brutality of slavery.

“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. You don’t know what the story is,” said the Aladdin actor.

Pondering over American slavery, Will stated, “It was one of the most brutal aspects of human history… It is hard to understand the level of human cruelty.”

“My daughter asked me, ‘Daddy, do we really need another slave movie?’ I said, ‘Daby, I promise you, I wouldn’t make a slave movie. This is a freedom movie,’” he added.

Meanwhile, Emancipation is slated to release in “select theatres” on December 4 while the movie is going to premiere on Apple TV+ on December 9.