LOS ANGELES, July 29 (Reuters) – Actor Will Smith stated on Friday he was “deeply remorseful” at having slapped Chris Rock on the Academy Awards this 12 months and had reached out to the comic to speak however was rebuffed.
Smith posted a video on YouTube during which he addressed questions concerning the assault on Rock on stage on the March ceremony after the comic made a joke concerning the look of Smith’s spouse, Jada Pinkett Smith.
“There isn’t any a part of me that thinks that was the suitable strategy to behave in that second,” Smith stated within the video, during which he was seated in a chair in entrance of a bookshelf.
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“I’m deeply remorseful,” Smith added. “I am attempting to be remorseful with out being ashamed of myself. I am a human, and I made a mistake.”
Smith stated he had tried to contact Rock and “the message that got here again is that he is not prepared to speak.”
“Chris, I apologize to you. My habits was unacceptable. And I am right here everytime you’re prepared to speak,” Smith added.
Lower than an hour after the incident, Smith gave a tearful speech on stage as he accepted the perfect actor award for his function in “King Richard,” portraying the daddy of tennis superstars Serena and Venus Williams.
Will Smith speaks in an apology video for slapping Chris Rock at Academy Awards 2022 on this display screen seize obtained from a social media video uploaded on July 29, 2022. Will Smith/YouTube/through REUTERS
Within the new video, Smith addressed the query of why he didn’t apologize to Rock throughout his speech.
“I used to be fogged out by that time. It is all fuzzy,” Smith stated.
In April, Smith resigned from the Academy of Movement Image Arts & Sciences, the group that award the Oscars, and the group banned him from attending the ceremony for 10 years.
Rock’s joke about Pinkett Smith made a reference to the 1997 movie “G.I. Jane” during which actress Demi Moore shaved her head. It was unclear whether or not Rock was conscious that she has a situation that causes hair loss.
Smith stated his spouse, who rolled her eyes at Rock’s joke, didn’t ask him at that second to deal with the matter.
He additionally stated “it hurts me psychologically and emotionally to know I did not stay as much as folks’s picture and impression of me.”
“Disappointing folks is my central trauma,” Smith stated. “I hate after I let folks down.”
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Reporting by Lisa Richwine
Modifying by Frances Kerry
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