The director of Will Smith’s new movie Emancipation has defended the star, deeming the controversial Chris Rock Oscars slap his “one bad moment.”
The director of the new flick, Antoine Fuqua, opened up about his experience of working with Smith in a recent interview.
The director insisted that he had “nothing but amazing things to say” about the fifty-four-year-old actor.
However, Fuqua couldn’t avoid discussing the star’s notorious Oscars slapping incident.
Read on for the full story.
Now, Will Smith has been through a hell of a lot over the last few years…
Particularly when it comes to his personal life.
As we know, things kicked off for Will when Jada Pinkett Smith’s alleged affair thrust the pair into the spotlight.
For years, rumors of infidelity between her and her husband were rife… But then a whole new rumor emerged.
Reports had been alleging eye-opening new details about the pair’s marriage…
And shockingly the situation continued to develop as Will also admitted that he “cheated” on his wife.
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The couple initially met all the way back in 1994.
Jada was only nineteen when she auditioned to play the role of Will’s girlfriend in the hit sitcom, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
But the pair hit it off right away.
At 6’2, Will towers over Jada, who is only 5′. But from the audition, Will and Jada built a friendship that soon turned into a romance.
Though Will was married to Sheree Fletcher at the time when they met…
In an interview with Access, Jada admitted that Will was still technically married when they started dating. “He was ‘div’,” she said. “The ‘orced’ hadn’t happened yet.” Will and Sheree divorced in 1995 and they continued to share custody of their son, Trey.
It didn’t take long for Will to make his moves on Jada…
Upon the breakdown of his marriage, Will had asked Jada if she was “seeing anyone,” and her response was “no.”
“Cool, you’re seeing me now,” Will had smoothly told her.
They appeared to be the perfect couple…
And, just 2 years later in 1997, Will and Jada had tied the knot in a private ceremony at the Cloisters Mansion in Jada’s hometown of Baltimore.
It wasn’t long after they announced Jada was pregnant with their first child…
Jaden, who is twenty-four, was born a year after they married, followed by Willow, who is twenty-two.
Both Jaden and Willow have embarked on careers as musicians since they were teenagers and they’re now proving to be very popular, particularly in the hip-hop and rap scene.
The Smiths seem like the perfect family…
But nothing is ever as perfect as it seems, right?
And sadly that seems to be the case for Jada and Will…
In 2013, fans went wild when Jada allegedly hinted that she and Will were in an open relationship.
During a HuffPost Live Interview back in 2013, Jada confirmed the rumors…
“I’ve always told Will, ‘You can do whatever you want as long as you can look at yourself in the mirror and be okay.’ Because, at the end of the day, Will is his own man. I’m here as his partner, but he is his own man. He has to decide who he wants to be and that’s not for me to do for him. Or vice versa.”
Taking to Facebook shortly after the interview, Jada opened her post with the question, “Open marriage?…”
She then explained: “The statement I made in regard to, ‘Will can do whatever he wants,’ has illuminated the need to discuss the relationship between trust and love and how they co-exist.”
On TIDAL’s Rap Radar podcast in 2018, Will also opened up about their marriage…
He said: “We don’t even say we’re married anymore. We refer to ourselves as ‘life partners,’ where you get into that space where you realize you are literally with somebody for the rest of your life. There are no deal-breakers. There’s nothing she could do – ever – nothing that would break our relationship.”
This solidified rumors about the couple’s unique relationship.
However, shortly after, a whole new spanner was thrown into the works.
In 2020, singer August Alsina came forward with some pretty eye-opening claims about Jada…
He had hinted strongly that he had engaged in a consensual relationship with Jada in his song “Nunya.”
And, to make this story even more scandalous…
He alleged that the relationship, which spanned over several years, “was approved by her husband Will.” What?
In an interview with The Breakfast Club’s Angela Yee, August said…
“I actually sat down with Will and had a conversation. Due to the transformation from their marriage to their life partnership that they spoken on several times, and not involving romanticism, he gave me his blessing.”
He continued…
“I totally gave myself to that relationship for years of my life. I truly and really, really deeply loved, and have a ton of love for her. I devoted myself to it, I gave my full self to it. So much so to the point that I can die right now and be OK with knowing that I truly gave myself to somebody,” he said.
He concluded…
“I really loved the person that I experienced that [with] and know what [that feels] like – if some people never get that in this lifetime.”
After those controversial comments…
Jada took to The Red Table to discuss the issue.
Okay, anyone who is familiar with the Smith family will be aware of their infamous Red Table.
Jada, alongside her daughter, Willow, hosts her own online chat show, Red Table Talk, where people sit around a red table, or sometimes on a red couch, and talk candidly about their own personal issues and experiences.
The full Smith family has appeared on Red Table Talk several times before…
And Will and Jada have candidly talked about their own relationship and family life.
But in this particular episode, she confessed it all…
And, just months later, Will Smith also made some admissions of his own…
In a cover story with GQ Magazine in September 2021, the actor confessed that he also had other s*xual relations during his marriage to Jada.
“Jada never believed in conventional marriage… Jada had family members that had an unconventional relationship,” he said. “So she grew up in a way that was very different than how I grew up. There were significant endless discussions about, what is relational perfection? What is the perfect way to interact as a couple? And for the large part of our relationship, monogamy was what we chose, not thinking of monogamy as the only relational perfection.”
He continued: “The pursuit of truth is the only way to be happy in this lifetime and we sort of came to the agreement that authenticity was the release from the shackles of fame and public scrutiny.”
The author of the GQ piece revealed that Will explained to them, that Jada wasn’t the only one that was “unfaithful” but didn’t elaborate on the details.
“We have given each other trust and freedom, with the belief that everybody has to find their own way,” Will told the publication.
“And marriage for us can’t be a prison. And I don’t suggest our road for anybody. I don’t suggest this road for anybody. But the experiences that the freedoms that we’ve given one another and the unconditional support, to me, is the highest definition of love,” he added.
And the Smith family was once again thrown into the spotlight after the events that unfolded during this year’s Oscars…
When Will punched Chris Rock on stage after he made a joke about Jada.
It’s safe to say, it was an event that got everyone talking.
And although Chris remained quiet about the incident for several weeks, he started to speak out.
Chris joked that he finally got his “hearing back” after being slapped by Will.
Chris made the joke while performing at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas as part of his comedy tour.
According to The Mirror, Chris discussed the incident telling fans that he is “good.”
“I am good,” he said. “I got my hearing back. It wasn’t as bad as it looked.”
The outlet reports that Chris also later added: “People who say that words are hurtful have never been punched in the face.”
It seems that Chris isn’t going to let the situation get the better of him.
He was even heard mocking Will during a comedy segment!
Chris referred to the actor as “Suge Smith.”
It has since been reported that it was in reference to Suge Knight, the Death Row Records CEO.
But it seems Will has really made a move in clearing his name as of late…
The director of Will’s latest movie Emancipation has nothing but gleaming things to say about him.
Speaking to Vanity Fair, Antoine Fuqua called Will the “nicest person I’ve ever met in my life.”
The director also revealed that the actor personally paid extras on set due to the extreme weather conditions.
“We had certain extras that were the dead bodies in the graves, and he would go give them money for laying there in that heat over 100 degrees.
“He was kind to everyone on the set. Will would go around and hug and shake hands,” Fuqua explained.
However, of course, he had to acknowledge the slap…
“I saw a different person than that one moment in time, and so my reaction was that particular moment is very foreign to me when it comes to Will Smith.
“I know Chris—Chris is a good guy too. I’ve spent time with Chris, and I think it’s an unfortunate event and I hope we can move forward and get past it,” he said.
“So no excuses for anyone or anything, but I can say that he’s a good man and I hope that people can forgive him and that we can move forward.
“I hope Chris and Will find a way to sit together publicly, privately, whatever, and make amends. I think it would be an incredible statement,” Fuqua added.
The director explained: “There was never a conversation… about the movie not coming out. It was more about, ‘We’re assessing everything. We’re seeing what people are saying.’
“My conversation was always, ‘Isn’t 400 years of slavery, of brutality, more important than one bad moment?'” he continued.
“We were in Hollywood, and there’s been some really ugly things that have taken place, and we’ve seen a lot of people get awards that have done some really nasty things.
“I’m grateful, I’m really grateful,” Fuqua concluded.