Will Smith has finally returned to award stage after eleven months of struggle, since the shocking incident happed at the Oscars 2022, where he slapped comedian Chris Rock on stage in front of millions of people for joking Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s baldness. It led to Smith being banned from attending the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for next ten years.
Will was presented with an award at the African-American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) 2023 and was also honored with the Beacon Award on Wednesday, March 1 for his film ‘Emancipation’ (2022). This was the first invitation the Oscar-winner received after that incident. He received the award along with the film director Antoine Fuqua.
The duo gave a brilliant speech on the stage. Fuqua begun the speech by explaining the significance of the award and said, “The Beacon Award is intended to highlight films that are tackling challenging subjects with insight, enlightening, as well as engaging the audience. It was our hope that Emancipation, that it would be able to bring Peter’s triumphant story and unwavering faith and his deep love for his family to life.”
Meanwhile Smith said, “‘Emancipation’ was the most individual difficult film of my entire career. It’s really difficult to transport a modern mind to that time period. It’s difficult to imagine that, that level of inhumanity.”
While recalling his experience of shooting for the film, Smith further continued, “It was the second day of shooting and 110 degrees. I was in a scene with one of the white actors, and we had our lines, and the actor decided to ad-lib. So, we are doing the scene. I did my line. 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, Antoineeeeee, but I stopped, and I realized that Peter couldn’t have called the director.”
