American actor Will Smith has apologized to comedian Chris Rock four months after slapping him at the 94th Annual Academy Awards in March.
Speaking during a question and answer session on his YouTube channel, Will apologized to Chris Rock for the slap.
“I have reached out to Chris and the message that came back is that he is not ready to talk and when he is, he will reach out,” said Will Smith.
“My behavior was unacceptable and I am here whenever you are ready to talk,” he added.
The Academy Awards winner also apologized to Chris Rock’s mother and family.
“I was not thinking about how many people got hurt in that moment. So I want to apologize to Chris’s mother. I want to apologize to Chris’s family, specifically Toy Rock, you know we had a great relationship. Tony Rock was my man, and this is probably irreparable,” said Will.
He also apologized to his own family and fellow Oscars nominees.
See the video here.
Meanwhile, it seems like his apology has not been accepted by everyone, if comments from the video are to go with.
Some even claim the apology is a PR gimmick.
Here are some of the comments:
“Honestly, Chris doesn’t have to accept Wills apology but if he chooses to accept it, he can choose not to reconnect. Forgiveness does not require reconnection.”
“We are defined not by our words, but by our actions. This video smacks of PR work and reputational salvage when the actions to support it are lacking.”
“If it was genuinely from the heart, it wouldn’t have taken 4 months to release this apology videoThis whole Hollywood culture of putting everything out there feels so rehearsed and managed. They took 4 months for them to plan how WS would address this without it backfiring, when his real concern should be privately getting in touch with CR (and continuing to try) without worrying about his image.”
“This guy is 50, he should have had the maturity and self control to not do what he did. That being said, I don’t think he’s a bad person, or that he deserves to lose everything over this, he definitely deserved the backlash though. I do hope he recovers from this eventually, otherwise he’s gonna be on a watch mojo list with Michael Richards and sinead O’Connor.”
