Anticipating that fans may be reluctant to see his first movie since his infamous slapping of Chris Rock at the Oscars, Smith told Fox 5 in Washington, D.C, “ If someone was not ready, I would absolutely respect that and allow them their space to not be ready.”
The interview was posted to YouTube Nov. 28.
Smith’s new movie “Emancipation” opens in theaters on Dec. 9 and he is concerned that those involved in the movie, from production through to fellow actors, will get a disappointing turnout because of his actions.
Smith slapped Rock while the comedian was presenting an award at the Oscars ceremony on March 27. Rock cracked a joke about Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett being bald due to alopecia. The audience laughed but Smith instantly stormed onto the stage, slapped Rock across the face, and then immediately returned to his seat.
Smith released his first public apology to Rock the day after the incident amid a mounting backlash on social media and from the Academy itself.
Emancipation is an historical action film directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by William N. Collage. It is based on the true story of Gordon, named "Peter" in the film, a former slave, whose photographs of his heavily scourged back from an overseer’s whippings were published worldwide in 1863 giving the abolitionist movement proof of the cruelty of American slavery.
The film also stars Ben Foster and Charmaine Bingwa.
The storyline sees, Peter, fleeing a plantation in Louisiana after being whipped within an inch of his life. He has to "outwit cold-blooded hunters and the unforgiving swamps of Louisiana on a torturous journey north".
Watch the trailer right here :
