Will Smith admits he had to ‘humble down’ in biggest media appearance since slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars

Will Smith in the Daily Show with Trevor Noah

Will Smith has made his biggest media appearance since he slapped comedian Chris Rock on stage at the Oscars in March. He said that after the incident, he had to "humble down." Smith has recently been back in the news to promote his upcoming movie Emancipation. On Monday night, US time, he appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah to discuss the movie. "I haven't seen you in a long time. Noah said at the start of the interview, "It's been a while since many people have seen you." "I haven't been here. "What have you guys been up to?" Smith made a joke, which made the studio laugh out loud.

As the two started to argue, Noah said that the night Smith won his first Academy Award at the Oscars was "one of the best days and one of the worst days of your life."

"First of all, I'd like to know how the journey has gone since that day," he said. "Yeah, you can imagine that was a terrible night," Smith said.

"It's complicated and has many different parts. But in the end, I just gave up. I guess what I'd say is that you never know what someone else is going through. You are sitting next to people you don't know in the audience right now. And somebody's mother died last week. The child of someone is sick. Someone just got fired from their job. Someone just learned that their partner cheated on them. There are so many things going on, and you just don't know what people are up to. That night, I was going through something. Not that that makes up for what I did. If you're asking, "What did I learn?" it's that we just have to be nice to each other, man. It's tough. And I guess the thing that hurt me the most was that I used my hard to make other people's lives harder. Hurt people hurt other people."

Will Smith’s conversation

Noah told him that one of his friends had said right after the punch that they thought they had seen "the real Will Smith" at that moment.

"I said, 'I feel like it was the opposite, if anything,'" the host remembered. "In your book, you talk about how you were afraid of fights as a child and didn't want to get into them. As I watched that happen, I got the feeling that you were fighting for the wrong thing at the wrong time. Do you understand what I mean? "Many bad things have been said about you and your family. You're a real person. It felt like... it's getting worse and worse now. People think this is fine. And no, I'm not talking about Chris. I'm talking about other people, the internet, etc. But it seemed like this was the first time Will Smith asked, "OK, is this how you want me to respond or not?"

Add Block

A lot of different things became the reason for the slap

Smith said, "It was a lot of different things."

"It was the little boy who had seen his father hit his mother," he said. "Everything just came out at that moment."

"I don't want to be like that. You know because you've known me for a long time. But maybe you don't know. "Man, I don't want to be like that." Noah said, "I also don't think that's who you are." "Now I'm crying," Smith said as he wiped his eyes with a tissue. Smith remembered when his nine-year-old nephew was holding the Oscar he'd won and asked him why he "hit that man." He was upset by the memory.

"It was terrible. He said, "You know, I don't want to go into it too much because I don't want to give people more to misunderstand." As the interview was coming to an end, Noah said some more kind words. "I speak for most people when I say that I don't want that to define you. He said, "I don't think it should make you who you are." Smith said, "Yes, I agree."

"I don't think any of us should be defined by our screw-ups, like, the screw-ups," the host said next.

"I hope you don't stay hidden forever. I hope you know that you don't have to hold everything in all the time. I hope you know that the thing that will make you perfect is that you aren't perfect. Dude, you're Will Smith! You're that dude. We really love you." Smith told him, "That was one of the most important things for me in the last few months."

"I had to let myself off the hook for being human. And it's like, trust me. No one hates that I'm a person more than I do. And just finding that space inside myself to be a person. All my life, I've wanted to be Superman. I've always wanted to come to the rescue of the girl in trouble. And I had to realise that I'm a flawed person who still has a chance to go out into the world and contribute in a way that makes me happy and, hopefully, helps other people.

Also Read: On The Daily Show, Will Smith Explains The Oscar Slap Controversy

The whole story of the storm

Chris Rock, who was hosting the Oscars, joked about Jada Pinkett Smith's shaved head, which made Smith storm on stage and hit Chris Rock. She has a condition that makes her hair fall out.

"Don't f***ing say my wife's name!" he yelled as he returned to his seat. Even though Chris Rock looked shocked, the ceremony went on, and Smith went on to win the Best Actor award for his role in King Richard.

After that, Smith was banned from the Oscars for ten years, but the Academy didn't take back his award.

He first talked about what happened in July, when he said he had tried to talk to Chris Rock about it, but that Chris Rock was "not ready to talk" yet. Smith told his fans in a video on his YouTube channel, "I've been doing a lot of thinking and personal work over the past few months." "You asked a lot of good questions that I wanted to take some time to answer." He answered a few of them, starting with, "Why didn't you apologize to Chris during your acceptance speech?"

"At that point, I couldn't see anything. Smith said, "It's all unclear." "I tried to get in touch with Chris and heard back that he's not ready to talk, but he'll reach out when he is." I will tell you, Chris, that I'm sorry. My behavior was wrong, and I'm here to talk whenever you're ready. I'm sorry to Chris's mother for what I said. I saw an interview that Chris's mother did, and I didn't realize how many people were hurt at that moment. So I want to apologize to Chris's mother, family, and Tony Chris Rock in particular." Chris's younger brother is actor and comedian Tony Chris Rock. "We got along really well. Tony Chris Rock was my guy, you know. And this is probably something that can't be fixed," Smith said. "I've spent the last three months thinking about and trying to understand what happened in that moment. "I'm not going to try to explain everything right now, but I can tell you all that there is no part of me that thinks that was the right way to act at that moment. That's not the best way to deal with disrespect or insults.

Also Read: Return of the legend After the Oscar Slap