It’s been four months since Will Smith slapped Chris Rock for not keeping his wife’s name out of his f*cking mouth at the 94th Academy Awards, even though it feels like it’s been four years. But for Smith, who later that night won his first Oscar and gave an extremely awkward speech, it’s only “been a minute.”
Smith uploaded a video to his YouTube channel titled “It’s been a minute” where he directly addresses The Slap. “I was fogged out by that point,” he said when asked why he didn’t apologize to Rock in his acceptance speech. “It’s all fuzzy. I’ve reached out to Chris and the message that came back is that he’s not ready to talk and when he is, he will reach out. So I will say to you, Chris, I apologize to you. My behavior was unacceptable and I’m here whenever you’re ready to talk.”
Smith said that there’s “no part of me that thinks that was the right way to behave in that moment. There’s no part of me that thinks that’s the optimal way to handle a feeling of disrespect or insults.” He also denied that Jada Pinkett Smith told him to “do something” following Rock’s G.I. Jane joke. “No,” Smith said. “I made a choice on my own from my own experiences, from my history with Chris. Jada had nothing to do with it.”
You can watch the video above.
