Will Smith makes first awards speech since Oscars slap

Actor accepted an award for the 2022 slavery drama ‘Emancipation’

Will Smith gave a speech on Wednesday night (1 March) while accepting a trophy at the African American Film Critics Association Awards.

It was the first time Smith has taken the stage at an awards ceremony since last year’s Academy Awards, during which he infamously walked onstage and slapped presenter Chris Rock.

Smith was accepting the Beacon award alongside director Antoine Fuqua for their 2022 Apple TV+ slavery drama Emancipation.

“Emancipation was the most individual difficult film of my entire career,” Smith began his part of the speech. “It’s really difficult to transport a modern mind to that time period. It’s difficult to imagine that, that level of inhumanity.”

Smith went on to describe a moment during filming when a co-star of his spontaneously spat at him in character.

“It was the second day of shooting and 110 degrees,” he recalled. “I was in a scene with one of the white actors, and we had our lines, and the actor decided to ad-lib.

“So we’re doing the scene. I did my line. He did his line. And then he ad-libbed and spit in the middle of my chest. If I had pearls on, I definitely would’ve clutched them. I wanted to say, ‘Antoine,’ but I stopped, and I realised that [my character] Peter couldn’t have called the director.”

Smith continued: “I sat there, and I took a deep breath, and we did take two, and the actor felt that the ad-lib had gone well. So, we do take two. I do my line. He does his line and spits in the middle of my chest again.

(AP)

“I just held in that moment, and there was a part – it makes me teary right now – there was a part of me that was grateful that I got to really understand. And then, in the distance, I hear a voice, and Antoine says, ‘Hey, let’s do a take without the spit.’ And in that moment, I knew that God was real.”

Following his actions at the 2022 Oscars, Smith was banned from attending any Academy events for 10 years. The King Richard Oscar-winner is nonetheless still eligible to win Academy Awards in that timeframe.

It was recently announced that Rock will address the slapping incident in a new live-streamed Netflix special.