Will Smith faced a huge career setback on March 27, 2022, when he took the liberty of slapping comedian Chris Rock across the face in front of a live audience. From then on, Will Smith was banned from attending any Academy events for ten years and was even bombarded with hate on the Internet. People even refused to watch his then-upcoming film, Emancipation.
Will Smith has had a lot of conversations about his actions since then. He even blamed his childhood trauma for a rage that he had bottled for a long time, which erupted at the Oscars. You might find it interesting to know that years before the Slapgate controversy, Will Smith had opened up about his insecurity and how people are not what they might seem to be.
Will Smith Warned Us about His Insecure Side
When Chris Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s baldness, which is a result of a medical condition, Will Smith could not keep his cool. He strutted to the stage and smacked Rock shouting, “Keep my wife’s name out of your f**king mouth!” This statement has since been made into a running meme on social media platforms as well as award functions.
Smith was seen as a man of a solemn nature. He even called out hip-hop artists for their excessive use of curse words in their songs and vowed to never use one in his. So why did Smith finally lose his cool? Was he simply hiding an insecure part of his personality? Well, it might be so.
Back in 2015, Smith was at a press conference for the promotion of his and Margot Robbie’s film, Focus. In the press conference, Smith elaborated on how the movie taught him that people are usually the opposite of what they put on display. Giving his own example, the actor stated,
“The film taught me that the things that people accentuate are the exact opposite of what the truth is. Like me, for example. I’m really loud so that’s a sign that there’s an insecure side. The more loud and bright a person is, the more the little five year old boy inside is scared and nervous.”
As it turned out Smith wasn’t using a general example of a scared five-year-old boy. The Men in Black actor, while giving his side of the story, stated that the rage he had bottled up since he was a little boy finally exploded that unfortunate day.
How Will Smith’s Childhood Trauma Led to the Slap
During his appearance on The Daily Show, Smith opened up to Trevor Noah about what was going on in his mind before he decided to get violent with Rock. He blamed his childhood trauma where his father would beat his mother and how he had been bottling up a rage since then.
“It was the little boy that watched his father beat up his mother, you know? And all of that just bubbled up in that moment…I understand how shocking that was for people. I was gone. That was a rage that had been bottled up for a really long time.”
Smith also stated that “hurt people, hurt people” indicating that his actions were caused by the hurt he had been carrying for all the past years. It sure looks like Smith gave us an eerie insight into the future all the way back in 2015.
Source: Express
