There is a very important disclaimer that appears at the beginning of David lettermanNew interview Will Smith Season 4 of his Netflix series My next guest doesn’t need to be introduced: “This episode was shot before the 2022 Academy Awards ceremony.”
Netflix and Letterman tell viewers that there are no clear questions or answers about Smith Infamous slap comedian Chris Rock For joking about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith in Oscar earlier this year. At the time of the release of the new season on Netflix, Smith has not yet publicly talked about the incident that overturned his life and career. from now on project Shelving for the time being.
Still, through almost an hour of conversation, there are moments that are quite different from when Smith’s fun and loving persona is still intact.
Early in the interview, Letterman described the experience he had with Smith in his old ones. Night screening Watching the “locomotive” enter the studio, “But you’re telling people that you don’t know exactly who you are.”
“Words hurt only if you’ve never been hit in the face:” Chris Rock takes on Will Smith Smack
“There are people who want to be and people who want to be seen,” Smith explained. Echo the first line of “And there is who you really are.” Self-titled memoirs “I always thought I was a coward,” Smith said last year.
The actor tells of his experience of seeing his father beating his mother at the age of nine. “And I didn’t do anything,” he said. “And it left my own traumatic impression as a coward.”
Smith went on to say that when he discovered the comedy, he realized that “when you’re laughing, there can’t be a negative presence in the human body,” and started using the comedy as a “defense mechanism.”
“In the end,’Will Smith’ became a symbol of joy and fun. When I appeared, I wanted people to be happy,” he told Letterman.
Smith’s image as a “symbol of joy and fun” was probably not only irreparably impaired by his actions at Oscar, but those actions were a direct attack on the comedy itself. Is also impressive. Abusive home.
In the second half of the episode, there are more moments that will be played differently in the post-slap world. At one point, Letterman makes a harmless reference to Smith’s mother, and the actor jokingly says, “Don’t say anything about my mother, Dave,” and then pretends to fight the 75-year-old host. .. stage.
In another scene, Smith shares lessons from his training to play Muhammad Ali by showing how he knows someone is trying to hit you. “Show me that, but don’t hit me,” Letterman jokes.
Smith traveled to India for post-slap meditation, the report said.
When someone drops his right foot back, it’s “the way you know he’s secretly preparing a shot,” Smith explains. Smith then throws a fake punch at Letterman. That was horrible. Please do not do it again. “
By the end of the interview, Smith told the host: You are ready to dive into your art in a way that you find fulfilling and useful to your human family. “
Now, the only question is whether Hollywood will give him the opportunity to move forward.
For more information, see The Daily Beast.
Deliver the Daily Beast’s largest scoops and scandals directly to your inbox. Sign up now.
Stay informed and have unlimited access to The Daily Beast’s unmatched reports. Subscribe now.