John Salley is giving us some insight on how Will Smith was handling things after taking a break from Hollywood once the media slammed him for slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars.
Salley sat down with Vlad Tv and explained how he spent a lot of time with Smith while filming Bad Boys 4. While talking about the multiple conversations they would have, Salley revealed how it seemed like Will actually had the best time. “After Will did his smack, Will got to travel. Will got to step outside of all this stuff and when he was back he said — best rest he’s ever gotten, best time he got to sit back and look at things,” Salley said. “We share books and he gave me a great book called Awareness and it definitely has changed my way of thinking too.”
He continued: “When you start realizing everything that happens is like the butterfly effect. Everything ripples down to something else and it was him having to get out of it. I always looked at it when I watched the smack — it seemed like he didn’t wanna do it but he was already committed. Because he was leaning back like he was fighting something.”
He later added that he felt it was a blessing that “people got to see that [Smith] was human.” He also pointed out the fact Will Smith is no longer in The Academy and being able to no longer win Oscars takes the stress away, saying: “Now you can just make movies because you love to make movies.”
As we previously reported, Chris Rock did a special on Netflix live called “selective outrage” where he finally spoke about Will Smith slapping him at the Oscars in front of millions of people watching.
Now Smith did apologize for putting his hands on Rock in a Youtube video. During the apology, Smith also addressed questions about whether or not Pinkett Smith, who was seen on camera rolling her eyes at Rock’s joke comparing her buzzcut to Demi Moore from “G.I. Jane,” is who urged him to charge the stage.
The actor said his wife said nothing to spur him to go on stage and assault Rock. “It’s like, you know, I made a choice on my own, from my own experiences, from my history with Chris,” Smith says. “Jada had nothing to do with it. I’m sorry, babe. I want to say sorry to my kids and my family for the heat that I brought on all of us.”