Will Smith: ‘I Was Going Through Something that Night’ When Assaulting Chris Rock at the Oscars

Will Smith has a movie, Emancipation, premiering this week and has been on a press run.

What’s been on many people’s minds has been what the former rapper-turned-actor was thinking about on that fateful night when he assaulted Chris Rock with a smack heard around the globe at the Academy Awards Show in March.

On a recent episode of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, he expressed that he had “rage” when he disrespected Rock that night on live television.

For possibly the first time since the infamous slap, Smith went into detail about the incident after admitting that the emotions that preceded his actions were not justified.

He opened up about his inappropriate and unprecedented behavior.

“That was a horrific night, as you can imagine. Um, you know there’s many nuances and complexities to it. But at the end of the day, I just — I lost it, you know?” he admits.

He brings up many examples in everyday life that can make people lose their cool. Loss of a job, death in the family, a spouse getting cheated on, etc. He mentions those occurrences to admit that he, too, was going through something that particular night.

“I was going through something that night, you know? And not that that justifies my behavior at all,” he said.

“We just gotta be nice to each other, man. It’s hard. I guess the thing that was most painful for me, is I took my heart and made it hard for other people. I understood the idea when they say hurt people hurt people.”

Noah also comes to his defense, saying to Smith, “I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that I don’t want that to define you. I don’t think it should define you. I don’t think that any one of us in life deserves to be defined by our one f**k-up.”

Recently, Smith stated in an interview that he “understands” if people aren’t “ready” to see his latest movie due to his behavior that night on the Oscars stage.

During an interview with Fox 5 DC reporter Kevin McCarthy, posted on the reporter’s Instagram account, Smith voiced concern that the team who worked on the film would be penalized because of his actions this past spring.

“I completely understand that…if…someone is not ready, I would absolutely respect that and allow them their space to not be ready…My deepest hope is that my actions don’t penalize my team.”