Will Smith has apologized for beating Chris Rock during the Oscars ceremony. “There’s not a single part of me that thinks this was the right way to behave,” Smith said in a video after months of silence on social media.
Smith stormed onto the stage at the March awards ceremony when Chris Rock joked about his wife’s bald head. Jada Pinkett Smith suffers from the hair disease alopecia and is therefore bald. The 53-year-old actor apologized the day after the incident. “All forms of violence are toxic and destructive. My behavior at the Oscars last night was unacceptable and unforgivable.”
Will Smith says in the video that he would like to talk to Chris Rock, but that Rock himself is not ready for that yet. That is why the actor now apologizes to Rock himself, to Rock’s mother and to his family. “I didn’t think about how many people I would hurt with this action,” Smith said. He’d wanted to do that before, but Rock wasn’t ready to talk to Smith just yet. “My behavior was unacceptable. And I’m here if you want to talk.”
Trauma
Smith has spent the past few months working on himself and trying to make amends for his life. “Saying sorry isn’t enough,” he says. However, he emphasizes that his wife has not instructed him to walk on stage. He also apologizes to her, his children, his fans and the other Oscar nominees. “Disappointing people is a deep-seated trauma of mine. I hate to disappoint people.”
In March, news reports revealed that Will Smith would enter therapy following the incident. It has not been disclosed what exactly the actor wanted to tackle during his therapy sessions. Sources say he wants to work on his position within his marriage to Jada, but spokespersons for Smith are not willing to go into what he wants to improve about himself. “That is a private matter and we are not making any statements about it.”
Chris Rock emphasized last weekend that he is not the victim in the affair surrounding the blow. “Anyone who says words hurt has never been slapped in the face,” he joked in New Jersey. “But I am not the victim in this case. Yeah, it hurt, like a motherfucker. But the next day I just went to work. I’m not going to the hospital for a cut.”
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