Will Smith Says Nine-Year-Old Nephew Made Him Feel Shame As He Revisits Horrific Slap on Oscar Night

Nothing makes grownups feel more accountable for their actions than innocent children. Will Smith must have learned that after the notorious Oscars incident between him and Chris Rock.

When the 54-year-old slapped Chris Rock for making a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett, he must not have been thinking of his nine-year-old nephew watching or the impression he was leaving the young lad. Not until he returned home to answer the question, “Why did you hit that man, Uncle Will?”

The Oscar winner shared an insight into his headspace that Oscar night on Monday night’s episode of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. According to him, he felt a lot of rage inside him that night. “‘It was a mess, you know,” he shared, adding, “I don’t want to go too far into it to give people more to misunderstand.”

Will added that the situation was a complex one. On that “horrific night,” he admittedly lost it, and while he can’t tie his action to one cause, he believes it was a result of a series of bottled-up emotions. “It was a lot of things. It was the little boy that watched his father beat up his mother, you know? All of that just bubbled up in that moment,” he shared.

Looking back at that night, Will admitted that that is not who he wants to be. The slap set off a series of adverse outcomes for the Robot actor. Aside from the loss of his image as the entertainment industry’s Golden Boy and the heavy backlash he and Jada were subjected to, he resigned from the Academy and was handed a 10-year ban from the Oscars. About eight months after the incident, he continues to pay as he tells Trevor that his new movie Emancipation is also suffering from the aftermath of that March 27 night. 

Noah pitched into the conversation, saying he hopes Will will not be defined by his “biggest f*** up.” To that, the father of three revealed that he, too, had to forgive himself for being human. “That I had to forgive myself for being human, you know, and it’s like, trust me, there’s no one that hates the fact that I’m human more than me,” he said

Will hopes the movie directed by award-winning filmmaker Antonie Fuqua – with contributions by Bob Richardson, Ben Foster, and other top artists – will do well in the market. Considering more than himself, he hopes the movie achieves success because of these people who “trusted” him and “were down” for him.

Emancipation will be released to theaters on December 2 and will drop on Apple TV Plus on December 9.