Will Smith Gets Emotional in First Awards Speech Since 2022 Oscars Incident
etonline.comWill Smith is speaking at award ceremonies again. The 54-year-old actor attended the 14th annual African American Film Critics Association Awards in Beverly Hills, California, on Wednesday night and took the podium to say a few words.
The speech marked the Oscar winner’s first in-person acceptance at an awards show since he slappedChris Rock onstage at the 2022 Academy Awards.Smith accepted the Beacon Award with Emancipation director Antoine Fuqua.
His co-star, Charmaine Bingwa, and AAFCA cofounder Gil L. Robertson handed out the award.After a quick speech from Fuqua, Smith took the stage to say a few words. “Emancipation was the most individual difficult film of my entire career,” Smith said. «It’s really difficult to transport a modern mind to that time period.
It’s difficult to imagine that, that level of inhumanity.»Smith then recalled being shockingly spat on by a white co-star while filming a scene, and how that impacted his understanding of the injustice of the slavery era.«It was the second day of shooting and 110 degrees,» he said. «I was in a scene with one of the white actors, and we had our lines, and the actor decided to ad-lib.
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