Will Smith is having a relatively rough year for a guy who won his first Academy Award in March.
Of course, slapping the host of the show about to fete you is probably not the best way to get on the good side of karma.
While Chris Rock famously declined to press charges for the incident, Smith did get a 10-year ban from attending the ceremony. He also was grilled mercilessly by the internet and went into hiding when he should have been celebrating the apex of his acting career.
Things are finally looking up for the actor, who apologized to Rock for the assault on the comedian in what the latter referred to as a "hostage video,” however.
Smith's first post-slap project, “Emancipation,” is generating positive buzz. Following a recent screening his performance as Peter — the real-life runaway slave depicted in the "Whipped Peter" series of photos in Harper's Weekly in 1863 that served as a searing indictment on slavery — was compelling enough for Apple to give it a December release.
The feature will be released to theaters in a limited release on Dec. 2, before making its debut on Apple TV+ a week later — making it eligible for this year's Oscar nominations.
That doesn't guarantee, of course, that Smith will remotely add another best actor trophy to his case remotely next year. If the word-on-the-street is to be believed, though, the movie and the powerful performance that drives it might be the most important of his career.
I had the pleasure of watching the film #Emancipation and can’t begin to tell how powerful this is for OUR community and OUR history. It’s a story of adversity, of resilience, of love, and of triumph.
— Derrick Johnson (@DerrickNAACP) October 1, 2022
Thank you Antoine Fuqua and Will Smith for sharing your gifts!#ThisIsPower
"I had the pleasure of watching the film #Emancipation and can’t begin to tell how powerful this is for OUR community and OUR history," NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson posted on Twitter following the screening. "It’s a story of adversity, of resilience, of love, and of triumph. Thank you Antoine Fuqua and Will Smith for sharing your gifts!"
Watch the teaser for the movie below:
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