Emancipation: Will Smith says he understands if audiences aren’t ready to watch him after the Oscars slap

The latest historical drama from Will Smith is on the horizon, and while the film could’ve been the first movie to promote him as being “Academy Award Winner Will Smith,” people are more likely to view it as starring “Academy Award Slapper Will Smith.” Emancipation is an intense historical drama about an escaped slave who navigates a country in chaos to get home to his family, but the movie has a cloud looming over it as the star made a controversial decision in a heated moment with comedian Chris Rock at this year’s Oscars.

That notion is not lost on Smith. IndieWire reports that the Fresh Prince actor is well aware that the incident is still in people’s minds and how that could influence their decision to watch the movie.

I completely understand — if someone is not ready, I would absolutely respect that and allow them their space to not be ready. My deepest concern is my team – Antoine has done what I think is the greatest work of his entire career. The people on this team have done some of the best work of their entire careers, and my deepest hope is that my actions don’t penalize my team. At this point, that’s what I’m working for. I’m hoping that the material – the power of the film, the timeliness of the story – I’m hoping that the good that can be done would open people’s hearts at a minimum to see and recognize and support the incredible artists in and around this film.”

Antoine Fuqua was quoted as saying, “The film to me is bigger than that moment. Four hundred years of slavery is bigger than one moment. My hope is that people will see it that way and watch the movie and be swept away with the great performance by Will and all the real hard work that the whole crew did.”

Emancipation was also a historically large purchase by Apple after the film was in a bidding war with distributors. The film is set to premiere in theaters on December 2 and then streaming on AppleTV+ on December 9.