THE REMAKING OF WILL SMITH

THE ACTOR IS BACK WITH A BRAND NEW ALBUM, THE FIRST STEP IN HIS CAREFULLY CHOREOGRAPHED POST-SLAP COMEBACK

- Sara Tapia

More than three years after that slap made him persona non grata, Will Smith is ready for his revival in Hollywood. The 56-year-old recently released his first album in 20 years, Based on a True Story, which addresses the now infamous moment at the 2022 Oscars and his public cancellation thereafter.

“This was the very, very first time that he wasn’t the good guy, that the internet treated him like the villain,” Omarr Rambert, executive producer of Smith’s album, told the New York Post of the “Slapgate” aftermath. “[Now] he just wants to be vulnerable and honest and show other sides of himself.”

The album is packed full of references to when Smith slapped Chris Rock at the 94th Academy Awards, after the comedian, who was presenting the award for Best Documentary Feature, made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, and her struggle with alopecia. The gobsmacking moment certainly left a sour taste in many fans’ mouths and tainted Smith’s subsequent Best Actor win for sports biopic King Richard.

The fallout was immediate, with the Academy giving Smith a 10-year ban for “unacceptable and harmful behaviour”, and projects like Fast and Loose being cancelled, while others such as Emancipation were delayed. The actor and musician, who had previously had a pretty much unblemished career, was forced to go to ground - only emerging several months later to formally apologise to Rock via a six-minute video on his YouTube and Instagram pages.

“The work I’m trying to do is that I’m deeply remorseful and I’m trying to be remorseful without being ashamed of myself,” he shared at the time. “I’m human. I made a mistake and I’m trying not to think of myself as a piece of sh-t.”