It was the slap heard around the world. March 27th, 2022 should have been the greatest moment of Will Smith’s career. He had worked his entire career towards finally winning the award that would prove, beyond any doubt, that he genuinely had the respect and admiration of his peers – the Academy Award. Indeed, Will Smith won that night for King Richard, but he also lost something precious. He lost the respect of his peers after an ill-advised (but innocuous) joke by Chris Rock led to the #OscarSlap that, until the day he dies, will haunt Smith.
All that said, Smith is still a legend. One of the most effortlessly charming actors to ever grace the silver screen, he was bound for greatness from the time he starred in NBC’s The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as a young rapper. Bad Boys proved his talent was too big to be constrained to the small screen, and his run of hits was legendary. Independence Day, Men in Black, Enemy of the State, Ali, and on, and on. That should not be swept away because of one (big) mistake. In this episode of WTF Happened to this Celebrity, written (with Brad Hamerly), narrated and produced by Taylor James Johnson, we dig into Smith’s career, the controversy, and most importantly, a way forward for the former (and future) superstar.
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