Will Smith's career has, no pun intended, taken a real hit since he slapped comedian Chris Rock during this year's Academy Awards. We're guessing you don't need us to give you a full-blown recap of what went down that night, but after Rock made a joke at Jada Pinkett Smith's expense, the actor took to the stage and struck the presenter across the face.
He'd win a long-awaited "Best Actor" Oscar later that night, of course, but it was completely overshadowed by Smith's earlier actions.
Now, ahead of Emancipation's release, a movie it was once thought could win Smith another Academy Award, he's doing the rounds and being asked to reflect on that night. During an appearance on The Daily Show With Trevor Noah, the actor was asked about his journey since that night.
"[There are] many nuances and complexities to it, you know, but at the end of the day, I just, I lost it, you know," Smith said, reflecting on what happened (via The Hollywood Reporter). "I guess what I would say, you just never know what somebody’s going through."
"You’re asking, what did I learn? And it’s that we just got to be nice to each other, man," Smith continued. "You know, it’s like, it’s hard. And I guess the thing that was most painful for me is, I took my hard and made it hard for other people. You know, it’s like, I understood the idea when they say hurt people hurt people."
"It was a lot of things. It was the little boy that watched his father beat up his mother, you know, is that you know, all of that just bubbled up in that moment. You know, I just that’s not who I wanna be."
In a separate interview, Smith also acknowledged that there will be those who aren't able to forgive him for his actions, noting that, "I completely understand that, if someone is not ready. I would absolutely respect that and allow them their space to not be ready."
He would go on to say that he just hopes those who worked on the movie aren't penalised come awards season for what he did earlier this year. Unfortunately, it seems inevitable that could happen, though critics have been praising the movie so they're clearly not holding Smith's past actions against him.
Whether moviegoers are able to move on remains to be seen, and everyone seems to have different opinions on this one. What we do know is that Smith won't be present at the Academy Awards if the movie is recognised after being banned from the event for the next decade.