Will Smith has apologized for smacking Chris Rock live at the Oscars on Sunday night.
“In this time in my life, in this moment I am overwhelmed by what God is calling on me to do and be in this world,” he said.
“Making this film, I got to protect Aunjanue Ellis who is one of the most strongest, most delicate people I’ve ever met. I got to protect Saniyya [Sidney] and Demi [Singleton], the two actresses who played Venus and Serena. I’m being called on in my life to love people and to protect people. And to be a river to my people. And I know to do what we do, you gotta be able to take abuse, you gotta be able to have people talk crazy about you. In this business, you gotta have people disrespecting you and you gotta smile and you gotta pretend that it’s ok.”
Will Smith’s Oscar speech. pic.twitter.com/XF7PeO01wp
— Temur Durrani (@temurdur) March 28, 2022
Smith later added, “I want to apologize to the Academy, I wanna apologize to all my fellow nominees. This is a beautiful moment and I’m not crying for winning an award. It’s not about winning an award for me. It’s about being able to shine a light on all of the people … art imitates life. I look like the crazy father. Love will make you do crazy things.”
