Tyler Perry Says Will Smith Was ‘Triggered’ Before Slapping Chris Rock at Oscars
American actor and filmmaker, Tyler Perry has lent his voice to the infamous Oscars slap where Award-winning actor, Will Smith shocked the world by walking up the stage and slapping celebrity comedian, Chris Rock over a joke the latter had made about his wife, Jada Pinkett’s bald head while presenting an award.
During a panel at the Tribeca Film Festival, Perry opened up on how being friends with Will Smith has been difficult adding that Smith was triggerd before slappng Rock on stage.
In his reaction, Perry said Will Smith was visibly “devastated” after slapping rock as he recalls the things he saw.
“And I’ll tell you, when we walked over to him, he was devastated. He couldn’t believe what happened. He couldn’t believe he did it,” the filmmaker/actor recalled of Smith’s demeanor.
“I’m looking at this man in his eyes going, ‘What are you doing? This is your night.’ And to get all the way to this moment, winning an Oscar, that was one of the crowning moments of his career that he wanted so desperately, and to have something like that happen…”
Perry exlained that after reading Smith’s book, he began to get a clearer picture of what triggered him to slap Rock over what the world considered a joke.
“I think he is very much in reflection of trying to figure out what happened,” Perry added. “Because what I’ll tell you is I just read his book, and there’s this moment about not being able to protect his mother [as a child]. I know that feeling — I’m getting chills just thinking about it. I know that feeling of being a man and thinking about the little boy. And if that trauma is not dealt with right away, as you get older it will show up in the most inappropriate, most horrible time. I know Will. I know him well.”
Smith went on to win the award for best actor that night, but was later banned from attending any events by the Academy despite apologising to Rock via Instagram.
Meanwhile, Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith recently urged both Smith and Rock to move towards reconciliation.
“Now about Oscar night, my deepest hope is that these two intelligent, capable men have an opportunity to heal, talk this out and reconcile,” she said during a recent episode of “Red Table Talk.”
