Will Smith claims he “reached out” to Chris Rock after punching him at the Oscars, but the comedian has said he is “not ready to discuss.”
At the Academy Awards in March, the actor punched Rock on stage after the comedian made a joke about Smith’s wife.
In a video that he published on Friday and discussed the slap, Smith renewed his apology. Smith had never been seen discussing the incident before.
“I apologise to Chris. My actions were unacceptable,” he said.
Smith has only ever made written statements regarding the altercation in the past. He responds to questions that seem to have been submitted by fans in the video on his personal YouTube account.
He speaks directly to the camera while reading out the questions.
I’ve spent the last three months replaying and trying to understand the nuances and complexity of what happened at that very moment, the actor claimed.
He claimed that after Rock made the joke, Jada Pinkett Smith did not ask him to defend her. According to Smith, Jada wasn’t participating.
Rock had targeted Pinkett Smith’s shaved head, which was a result of the alopecia ailment.
In a recent interview, Pinkett Smith expressed her “deepest wish” that her husband and Rock would “reconcile” following the event.
She had earlier stated on her social media that it was a “season for healing.”
At the Oscars event, Smith also offered his regrets to his fellow candidates. He earned his first Oscar for his performance in King Richard, a movie about the father of Serena and Venus Williams, after the incident on stage.
Smith has been prohibited from attending Academy functions for the next 10 years as a result of what the Oscars have called his “unacceptable and damaging behaviour” on stage.
It was stated that after the slap, Smith was asked to leave the award ceremony, but he refused. A producer later clarified that Rock himself had not intended for Smith to be ejected violently or taken into custody by the police.
