Why did Will Smith slap Chris Rock- Corriere.it

“When I was nine years old, I saw my father hit my mother so hard in the head that she fainted and spit blood. (…) It is ingrained in everything I’ve done since then – awards and accolades, lights and attention, characters and laughs – there has always been a streak From subtle apologies to my mother for inertia. Shows that day. For her failure at that moment. For not standing up to my father. For being a coward. To understand (be careful, don’t justify) Will Smith slap Chris Rock During the night of the Oscars, you have to go and read carefully his autobiography “Will” published at the end of 2021 (in Italian published by Longanesi). A childhood with his authoritarian and violent father, constant tension in the family, comedy as a lifestyle choice to defuse negativity, expel fear and expel his own feelings of guilt: there’s Will Smith telling the story that made him what and. And that led him, 45 years after that night his mother was beaten to death, to go up on stage to beat up the evening’s host live: he had to stand up for his wife. Because he did not defend his mother. And because he’s been fighting all his life to not be a coward.

The slap lives for a bad joke On Jada Pinkett’s vixen
A must read in light of Will’s life. Of course, it was a poor teaching and style misstep, performance Toxic masculinity Which overshadows the intent to defend a woman (on the other hand, she knows how to stand up for herself well). But behind the slap and the wordsTake my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth. There is the story of a boy whose relationship with his father was a mixture of admiration and fear, the story of a son who chose not to fight as his brothers did, but rather to please: “In my house everyone was ready to fight, everyone but me,” says the actor.

In his thank-you speech delivered in tears after his Oscar, Will Smith, they say, tried to put a piece of it: he mentioned the film’s character, “King Richard”
Serena’s father and Venus Williams described him as an “thirsty advocate for the family” for comparison to himself and explaining his personal and deep desire to defend his wife and family: “At this moment in my life I am overwhelmed by what God requires me to do on this earth. I have been called into my life.” to love peopleTo protect the people and be a river for my people. I had to protect Jade. I want to be an ambassador for this kind of love, care and attention.” But he again brought out his “character”, the character the public has always known, a good bragging and generous, like an “Independence Day” captain punching an alien creature from his spaceship. That character he built as a child: «I was the artist of the family, I wanted to relieve tension and bring joy and fun (…). I should have been able to please my father. I should have been able to protect my mother. I should have been able to bring joy and stability to the family. I should have been able to fix it all: the comedian but also the hero. The idiot but also the tireless worker. This is how little boy Will Smith became. But every now and then the past comes back, and in an instant, the scaffolding of perfection built over the years collapses. A moment that ruins a great personal moment can be like winning an Oscar.

“Love makes you do crazy things,” he said in the letter. In the book, he says, “Love in my head became something earned by saying and doing the right things.” But this is called consent. man and personality. The division that torments him.

Reading Smith’s life story now makes us better understand the words spoken many hours after that slap, the one used To finally apologize to Chris Rock: “I want to offer my public apologies, Chris. I was wrong and I’m embarrassed.. My actions are not indicative of the man I want to be.” Which translated means: I don’t want to be like my father. Violent.