Will Smith makes first awards show appearance since infamous Oscars slap as part of Grammys tribute to Quincy Jones
Three years after slapping Chris Rock during the Oscars, Will Smith returned to an awards show to participate in a tribute to Quincy Jones during Sunday’s Grammys.
Smith, who won Best Actor at the 2022 Oscars after slapping Rock across the face during the live broadcast, introduced Herbie Hancock and Cynthia Erivo at the start of the Jones tribute. He later returned to the stage to relay an anecdote about Jones, the executive producer of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, the television series that helped launch Smith’s acting career. As Smith recalled, he struggled to work through a scene when Jones summoned him to the craft services table.
More from GoldDerby
“He got his hands on his hips, and he’s at the snack table, and he’s looking at the snacks. And I was like, ‘What’s up?’ Q said, ‘So this is the food that you think the people on your set should eat?’” Smith said. “I was like, ‘Quincy, I don’t do the snacks on the show.’ And he said, ‘Whose name is on this script?’”
After Smith told Jones the show was named after his rap alter-ego, he said the legendary producer responded, “‘Let me get this straight. You want these people to work 16 or 18 hours a day so you can realize your dreams, and this is the food you think they should eat.’ He said, ‘I don’t care if it’s not in a budget. You pay for it out of your own pocket.’
“And he said something to me that became the absolute center of how I wanted to have my career, how I wanted to live my life,” Smith added. “He looked right in my face and said, ‘It is your job to take care of these people.’ And I’ve done everything I can through my career to try to live up to Quincy’s demand.”
Christopher Polk for Variety
While presenting Best Documentary at the Oscars in 2021, Rock joked that Pinkett Smith, who attended the ceremony with her head shaved due to her alopecia, looked like she couldn’t wait for a sequel to G.I. Jane. (In the 1997 movie, star Demi Moore appeared with her head shaved.) In response to the barb, Smith shouted profanities at Rock from the audience before walking up and hitting the comic in the face. The “slap,” as it became immediately known, had wide-reaching ramifications: Smith was barred from attending the Academy Awards or other Oscar events for 10 years (he can return to the Oscars in 2031). While Smith was defiant in his Best Actor acceptance speech shortly after the slap, he apologized several times – including during an interview with Grammys host Trevor Noah.
“That was a horrific night, as you can imagine,” Smith said to Noah in 2022 while promoting the slavery drama Emancipation on The Daily Show. “There’s many nuances and complexities to it, you know. But at the end of the day, I lost it, you know?”
Asked by Noah if he had learned anything following the incident and its fallout, Smith said, “I guess what I would say is you just never know what somebody is going through. … I was going through something that night, you know? Not that that justifies my behavior at all, I would just say you’re asking what did I learn. It’s that we just got to be nice to each other, man. It’s hard. I guess the thing that was most painful for me is I took my hard and made it hard for other people. I understood the idea when they say hurt people hurt people.”
He later as an explanation, “It was a lot of things. It was the little boy that watched his father beat up his mother, you know? All of that just bubbled up in that moment. That is not who I want to be.”
Months later, Rock broke his silence on the slap, making the incident the cornerstone of his Netflix comedy special Selective Outrage. “I love Will Smith my whole life…. He’s made some great movies. I have rooted for Will Smith my whole life. I root for this motherf–ker, okay? And now I watch Emancipation just to see him get whooped,” Rock said.
Best of GoldDerby
Sign up for Gold Derby's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Solve the daily Crossword
