Will Smith says bottled rage led him to slap Chris Rock at the Oscars

Appearing on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, he said: “I was going through something that night, you know?

“Not that that justifies my behaviour at all.” Smith added that there were “many nuances and complexities to it”, but added: “I just – I lost it.“

Smith stormed the stage at the Hollywood award ceremony after Rock made a joke about Smith’s wife’s shaved head. Jada Pinkett Smith has the hair loss condition alopecia.

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He had previously said his wife did not ask him to confront Rock.

“I guess what I would say is that you just never know what somebody’s going through,” he said, without elaborating on what he was referring to.

The interview on the late-night US TV talk show was the first time Smith had been publicly challenged about the attack.

“I understand how shocking that was for people… I was gone. That was a rage that had been bottled for a really long time,” he told Noah.JAMB portal

“That was a horrific night, as you can imagine.”

In July he posted a video on YouTube, answering questions that appeared to be written by fans about the Academy Awards. Prior to that, he had only issued written statements about the altercation.

He appeared on Monday night’s episode of The Daily Show to promote his upcoming Oscar-eligible film Emancipation, which will be released next week.NYSC portal

Smith, who collected this year’s prize for best actor after the slap, stated that the possibility that his new film will be “tainted” during the following awards season was “killing me to death.”

The 54-year-old has been barred from attending the Oscars for the next decade and has resigned from the Academy, which organizes the ceremony.

In a second interview, he was asked what he would say to critics who claimed it was premature for him to promote his work. He responded, “I absolutely understand if you know someone is not ready.