Will Smith returned to an awards show stage for the first time since slapping Chris Rock, who is expected to address the incident during a stand-up show debuting this weekend.
Smith gave an acceptance speech Wednesday at the African American Film Critics Association Awards, where he and director Antoine Fuqua were honored for “Emancipation.”
Based on a true story, “Emancipation” stars Smith as Peter, an enslaved man in the American South during the 1860s. During his speech, Smith described “Emancipation” as the “most difficult film of my entire career.”
“It was the second day of shooting and 110 degrees. We’re out there, and I was in a scene with one of the white actors and we had our lines, and the actor decided to ad-lib,” Smith said at the Beverly Hills ceremony.
“I did my line, and then 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 realized that Peter couldn’t have called the director.”
It was Smith’s first acceptance speech since the March 2022 Oscars, where he slapped Rock over a joke about the shaved head of his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. Pinkett Smith suffers from the hair-loss condition alopecia.
Rock has remained quiet about the incident beyond a few jokes during stand-up sets but plans to address the slap for a wide audience during his special, “Selective Outrage,” which Netflix will live-stream live Saturday, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Smith, who accepted the Oscar for best actor for “King Richard” shortly after the slap, was later banned from the Academy Awards for 10 years. He has apologized multiple times in the months since.