A long time feud?
Dabbling in Scientology?
- Slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Academy Awards wasn't Will Smith's first brush with
controversy.
Keep watching for the incidents that provoked strong reactions even among his most devoted
fans.
Let's start with Will Smith's outburst at the 2022 Academy Awards.
Midway through the ceremony, Chris Rock took to the stage to crack a few jokes and announce
the winner of the best documentary feature.
Toward the end of his riff, Rock joked about Jada Pinkett Smith's buzz-cut hairstyle — a
new look for her that came on the heels of an alopecia diagnosis.
"Well, I've been having issues with hair loss."
Initially, it looked like Will was going to take the controversial jab in stride, but
as the cameras panned away, he seemingly had a change of heart and stormed on stage to
slap Rock across the face before returning to his seat.
While the network quickly hit the mute button, Will heatedly told Rock,
"Keep my wife's name out your f—ing mouth!"
Unsurprisingly, everyone watching was stunned.
Twitter lit up with hot takes and news outlets started pumping out think pieces on the appropriateness
of Will's reaction.
When he was called up minutes later to accept his own Oscar for best actor, the star issued
a semi-apology to those in attendance, noting how his real-life character was, quote, "a
fierce defender of his family," and adding,
"Love will make you do crazy things."
Notably absent, however, was an apology to Rock, which didn't come until a full 24 hours
later on Instagram.
The post read in part,
"I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris.
I was out of line and I was wrong."
The 2022 Academy Awards wasn't the first time Will Smith had resorted to physical violence
when confronted with a joke he didn't like.
Back in 2012, while walking the red carpet for the Men in Black 3 premiere in Moscow,
Russia, the actor lightly slapped and pushed a Ukrainian journalist-comedian, Vitalii Sediuk,
who attempted to kiss him on the cheek.
"C'mon man, what the hell is your problem, buddy?"
A few months later, on The Late Show with David Letterman, Smith explained his perspective
on the situation, saying he had agreed to give Sediuk a hug, but was thrown off when
the other man seemed to lean in for a kiss.
"It's just awkward, Dave."
When the reporter's peers tried to diffuse the situation by explaining that the move
was just "his shtick," Smith responded,
"Well, that's why his a– got shtuck."
For his part, Sediuk apologized to Smith publicly telling Hip Hollywood,
"I apologize for my behavior.
[...] I think it was too much.
I just wanted to do something extraordinary to impress him."
The reason Will Smith was in attendance at the 2022 Academy Awards in the first place
was because he had been nominated for best actor for his role as Serena and Venus Williams'
father, Richard Williams, in the biopic King Richard.
While his turn as the tough-as-nails tennis coach and dad was much lauded, it didn't come
without controversy.
When Deadline broke the news back in 2019 that the actor had been tapped for the role,
some critics were immediately outraged over the choice, citing the fact that Smith has
a much lighter skin tone than the real-life Richard Williams.
Sportswriter Clarence Hill Jr. led the charge, tweeting,
"Colorism matters.
[...] Love Will Smith but there are other Black actors for this role."
Most people seemed to agree with Hill's take, with some even going so far as to suggest
white stars portray the Williams sisters if the casting was going to be that messy.
The issue is, of course, a nuanced one, and while Hollywood is certainly guilty of miscasting
and offering roles to white, able-bodied actors that shouldn't necessarily belong to them.
For his part, Smith never commented on the controversy himself, nor did he step back
from the part.
Generally speaking, Will Smith seems like a pretty happy and friendly person — but
according to former co-star Janet Hubert, who played the original Aunt Viv on The Fresh
Prince of Bel-Air, he supposedly wasn't always the kind soul he appears to be.
As highlighted by ABC 7, during the early seasons of the sitcom, Hubert earned a reputation
for allegedly being difficult on set, which stemmed from butting heads with Smith over
his brand of humor and reported refusal to help his co-stars renegotiate their contracts.
It was an unfortunate characterization that stuck and made Hubert, whose role was recast
ahead of Season 4 due to contractual issues, virtually unemployable in the industry.
She filed a defamation lawsuit against Smith in 1993, claiming, quote, "intentional infliction
of emotional distress" and alleging that he, quote, "influenced NBC to reduce her salary
and air time."
She lost, but the ordeal brought on a nearly three-decade-long feud, which saw both stars
publicly trading barbs.
It wasn't until 2020 that the pair made amends while taping HBO's Fresh Prince reunion special,
which Hubert attended on Smith's last-minute invite.
"Calling a Black woman 'difficult' in Hollywood is the kiss of death."
Smith publicly apologized, and the duo have remained on good terms since.
Hubert even defended his behavior at the 2022 Oscars.
The Smith family — Will, Jada, Jaden, and Willow — are a tight-knit unit, who don't
hesitate to stick up for each other.
And while that closeness is certainly a testament to Will, many have argued that the clan occasionally
takes it a bit too far.
More specifically, some critics have accused the patriarch of nepotism.
A quick glance through Jaden Smith's IMDb page, for example, will show you that of the
more well-known big screen acting credits the young actor has, most are from projects
that have been produced by one of his parents — All of Us, The Pursuit of Happyness, Karate
Kid, and After Earth.
"What was I supposed to do?
What did you want me to do?"
In his 2021 memoir "Will," the actor opened up about the nepotism accusations.
Of The Pursuit of Happyness, he wrote that the studio didn't want to cast Jaden, writing,
"It would seem like nepotism, and just put us in the hole from the first announcement."
Still, the concerns didn't keep the Smiths from pushing for Jaden to get the part, and
eventually, they had their way.
The favoritism isn't something that's slipped by fans, either.
One commenter on Reddit, for example, asked,
"Has anyone in Hollywood benefited from nepotism more than Jaden Smith?"
They got dozens of upvotes.
It's also backfired on the Smiths, and that's apparent in the critical response and box
office bombing of After Earth, which saw the masses complaining about Jaden's acting abilities.
As Will told Esquire,
"That was the most painful failure in my career."
There's no denying that the Smiths are known as an unusual family, and Will Smith's parenting
philosophy is a clear demonstration of that.
In a now-deleted interview with Metro, the star explained how he and Jada Pinkett Smith
don't believe in disciplining their kids.
He told the outlet,
"We don't do punishment.
The way we deal with our kids is, they are responsible for their lives.
Our concept is, as young as possible, give them as much control over their lives as possible
and the concept of punishment, our experience has been — it has a little too much of a
negative quality."
The progressive approach struck the wrong chord with some fans, who felt that the actor's
parenting style was not helpful to his young children, but rather kept him from protecting
them.
The criticism ramped up in 2014 when a 13-year-old Willow Smith was photographed in bed with
actor Moisés Arias, who was 20 at the time.
The incident eventually led to an investigation into the Smiths by Child Protective Services.
In an interview with BBC Radio a couple of years after the initial drama, Will admitted
in a half-joking manner that he and Jada, quote, "may have gone too far" in their hands-off
approach, and perhaps should have kept a tighter rein on Jaden and Willow.
"We may have gone too far."
Casual fans of Will Smith may not know that he actually has a third child from his first
marriage to Sheree Zampino.
Trey Smith, who was born in 1992, primarily lived with his mother following his parents'
divorce in 1995, and, as a result, spent much of his life outside of the spotlight.
Will's absence from his day-to-day life was apparently quite hard on the youngster: According
to a 2018 Instagram post shared by the Fresh Prince alum, Trey felt betrayed & abandoned
for a long time following the split.
Will revealed how he and his eldest child struggled for years to develop a close relationship,
particularly after the star moved on with his new family.
Divorce is never easy when kids are involved, especially when one parent winds up having
more kids with a new partner, and Will has expressed regret over Trey feeling neglected.
During an episode of his Bucket List show on Facebook Watch the following year, Will
admitted that it had only been in more recent years that he and Trey had begun healing their
rift.
As he added in that same Instagram post,
"It is a Wild Blessing to recover & restore a Loving Relationship with My Beautiful Son!"
Luckily, the two are still on good terms these days — and Trey, who's a DJ and producer
and uses the moniker AcE, has even collaborated with half-siblings Jaden and Willow Smith
on various musical projects, including 2012's Find You Somewhere.
Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith often paint their love story as one for the ages, and
they certainly have been through a lot together.
However, their entanglement began when Will was still technically married to his first
wife, Sheree Zampino.
In a 2018 interview with Access, Jada let it slip that when Will first reached out to
initiate a more-than-friends relationship, he wasn't exactly fully free to do so, saying,
"He was just separated, yeah."
The couple has maintained that they weren't physically involved until Will finalized his
divorce, but judging by Will's confessions on Red Table Talk, his heart had certainly
strayed well before he made any move to end things with Zampino.
During the sit-down interview, Will recalled how, at a certain point in his first marriage,
"I had a realization that I wasn't with the person I was supposed to be with."
He added,
"I would have never gotten divorced."
Instead of being honest with Zampino and calling time on that partnership, he privately worked
through his mixed emotions and resolved to remain physically faithful and married, even
if he was only half in it.
Ultimately, Zampino did what Will could not and asked for a divorce, which allowed him
to take up with Jada in earnest promptly after signing those divorce papers.
Much has been made of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith's open relationship, but what
some specifically take umbrage with are comments Will once made about his ideal love life.
Specifically, when he divulged in a 2021 GQ profile his youthful fantasy to have a harem
of girlfriends, while name-dropping the likes of ballet star Misty Copeland and actor Halle
Berry.
Smith elaborated,
"I don't know where I saw it or some s**t as a teenager, but the idea of traveling with
20 women that I loved and took care of and all of that, it seemed like a really great
idea."
Obviously, he never acted on the impulse, eventually realizing that it wouldn't be nearly
as fun of an existence as he first imagined.
He told GQ,
"After we played it out a little bit, I was like, 'That would be horrific.
[...] Can you imagine how miserable?'"
For years, fans have speculated about whether or not Will Smith is an active member of the
Church of Scientology.
Over the course of his decades-long career, he's taken a variety of stances on the religion,
sometimes cozying up to the church and other times firmly distancing himself from its controversial
tenets.
In 2008, for example, Smith told Access,
"The ideas of the Bible are 98% the same as Scientology."
But in a more recent episode of Red Table Talk, the actor denied being involved with
the group.
"We've never been Scientologists."
Confusing matters even more, however, is the fact that many of Smith's movies reportedly
contain Scientology references and themes — Vulture even called his sci-fi flick After
Earth a love letter to Scientology in 2013.
Additionally, the Daily Mail reported that, in 2007, Will and Jada donated over $122,000
to the church.
But according to a March 2022 tweet from reporter Tony Ortega,
"Will and Jada Smith have been out of #Scientology since at least 2015."
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