Will Smith Opens up about the rage behind his Oscar Slap

I’m sure that you have seen or heard of the infamous slap where Will Smith unexpectedly smacked Chris Rock across the face when he made a joke about his wife’s hair. Will Smith recently was interviewed by the Trevor Noah on the Daily Show where he opened up about the reason behind why he slapped him.

Smith described that he “just lost it.” He said that there was a lot of anger that had bottled for a while, but said that it did not justify his actions. “I guess what I would say is you just never know what someone is going through. I was going through something that night. … It’s like when they say “‘Hurt people hurt people,’ you know?”

Smith says that his biggest challenge in the past eight months was forgiving himself for “being human.” “I had to humble down and realize that I’m a flawed human and I still have an opportunity to go out in the world and contribute in a way that fills my heart and hopefully helps other people,” said Smith.

Trevor said that this was Smith’s best and worst night. Smith has resigned from the Academy and is banned from the Oscars for 10 years.

Smith eventually did apologize to Rock, in a video posted to social media this July, but Rock said at the time he wasn’t ready to discuss the incident. He’s since reportedly joked about the incident at various stand-up performances.

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