Will Smith said he understands why people might not want to see his upcoming movie.
He won the Best Actor Oscar earlier this year for his role in King Richard, but garnered more attention that night for slapping comedian Chris Rock, who made a joke onstage about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
As a result, he was banned from attending the Oscars for the next decade ― even though it’s possible he could be nominated and even win an award.
Emancipation, the actor’s first film since the slap, opens in cinemas this weekend before streaming on Apple TV a week later.
The film is loosely based on the life of an enslaved man named Gordon, whose scarred back was photographed in 1863 and was famously used by abolitionists to show the public just how brutal slavery was.
Emancipation is getting some Oscar buzz, but Will said he understands if filmgoers have second thoughts about watching it considering his behaviour at the last ceremony.
“I completely understand that if someone is not ready, I would absolutely respect that and allow them their space to not be ready,” he told film critic Kevin McCarthy in an interview clip posted on social media.
He said that he hopes the reaction to the slap doesn’t affect the film’s chances of success or the award opportunities for the other people who worked on the film.
“My deepest concern is my team — [director Antoine Fuqua] has done what I think is the greatest work of his entire career,” he said.
“I’m hoping that the material, the power of the film, the timeliness of the story — I’m hoping that the good that can be done — will open people’s hearts at a minimum to see and recognise and support the incredible artists in and around this film,” he said.