The director of Will Smith’s new film Emancipation has described the actor as “the nicest person I have ever met” after he paid extras on the movie out of his own pocket.
Antoine Fuqua, who directed Will in the Apple TV movie as an enslaved man who goes on a gruelling journey to freedom after escaping from a Louisiana plantation in the 1860s, said he had nothing but ”amazing things to say about Will Smith”.
In a new interview with Vanity Fair, Antoine said of his lead star: “He was kind to everyone on the set. Will would go around and hug and shake hands – we had 300-something extras and military. Marines.
“He’s funny. He’s fun. We had certain extras that were the dead bodies in the graves, and he would go give them money for lying there in that heat of over 100 degrees.”
He continued: “I have nothing but amazing things to say about Will Smith, really genuinely. You can ask anybody that worked on the movie, they’ll tell you the same.
“Nicest person I’ve ever met in my life.”
Emancipation is Will’s first film since he slapped Chris Rock across the face at the 2022 Oscars, after the comedian made a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s baldness.
The incident led to the actor apologising, resigning from the Academy and receive a 10 year ban from all Oscars events
Antoine said he hoped that audiences can move on from the Oscars slap.
“The film to me is bigger than that moment,” he said. “Four hundred years of slavery is bigger than one moment.
“My hope is that people will see it that way and watch the movie and be swept away with the great performance by Will and all the real hard work that the whole crew did.”
Watch the trailer for Emancipation below...