Hollywood star Will Smith has opened up on the fallout of his infamous slap to comedian Chris Rock on stage at the Oscars.
The Oscars 2022 broke the Internet after Smith went up on the stage and slapped Chris Rock on the face after he made a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s closely cropped hair. While he later expressed remorse over the incident, Will Smith was banned from the Oscars for 10 years. The incident took place when Chris Rock mocked Will’s wife Jada’s appearance.
Soon after, the Hollywood actor left his seat and slapped the comic across the face, while telling him to keep his wife’s name out of his mouth.
Three years after his infamous slap to Chris Rock, the Hollywood actor has admitted that such a public mistake was “brutal”. “The last few years for me have been really deep reflection. After the Oscars I shut it down for a minute and really went into the internal work and just taking a big, strong, honest look at myself,” he said in an interview with a US media outlet.
The Hollywood actor said that he faced an unimaginable level of disapproval due to his actions.
“For the first time in my career, I was having to deal with a level of disapproval that I never had to experience. The addiction to the approval of others that I had to dissolve, it was brutal,” Will Smith said. He added, “It was just like there was a manhole cover over some unexplored areas and the manhole cover came off. It was scary for a minute what was in there.”