Actress Jada Pinkett Smith, the hidden protagonist of last year’s Academy Awards punching incident, spoke out. Her husband, actor Will Smith, went on stage unannounced during last year’s awards ceremony, slapped the host and swore at him. This scene was broadcast live around the world. In an interview with the New York Times (NYT) on the 14th (local time), he began by saying, “Will was exhausted both physically and mentally at the time.” In his recently published autobiography, he devoted a chapter to his position on the incident.
The awards ceremony incident started with a joke by the host, comedian Chris Rock. At the time, Pinkett Smith had shaved his head due to hair loss due to illness, and Rock pointed to him and jokingly said, “I’m looking forward to appearing in the second part of ‘GI Jane’ (a movie featuring a female protagonist with a shaved head).” Will Smith, who was sitting in the audience, kicked out of his seat, went up to the stage, and became violent, including swear words and yelling, “Don’t mention my wife’s name.” He won the Best Actor award that day, but was disciplined and withdrew from the Academy after making a public apology.
Looking at the awards ceremony incident alone, it seems like the husband hit the host for making fun of his sick wife, but in fact, the Smith couple’s relationship is a bit more complicated. The two are currently legally married, but are effectively separated. This is what Pinkett Smith revealed in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter and People Magazine this month. In the NYT interview, he said, “I was happy that Will called me ‘wife’,” and “When I heard that, I thought, ‘Yes, we are a team that will overcome this wave together.'”
Pinkett Smith confirmed that their separation is not a step toward divorce. Will Smith also drew a line in the past, saying, “There is no divorce.” This happened when Pinkett Smith admitted to having an affair with rapper Augustus Alsina, who is 21 years younger than her, sparking rumors of her divorce. Pinkett Smith’s side initially denied that it was an affair, but Alsina appeared on a broadcast and made a statement to the effect that Will Smith was aware of the affair and tolerated it. Afterwards, Pinkett Smith indirectly acknowledged his “entanglement” with Alsina. Alsina was a friend of Will Smith’s son from her first marriage, so her influence grew. At the time, Will Smith denied divorce and said, “We are not bound by a traditional marriage,” and added, “We have both had relationships with partners outside of marriage.”
Their relationship, which is not divorced but not married, is currently ongoing. Pinkett Smith told the NYT that although she has been separated since 2016, her children are an important focal point. “We believe we have created a special community with our children,” he said.
Pinkett Smith’s autobiography is over 400 pages. He told the NYT, “I wanted to tell the real story of myself that I wanted to tell, not the story of who people think they know.” He defended Will Smith’s violence at the awards ceremony, saying, “At the time, I had just finished filming a movie starring a slave, and I was extremely exhausted both physically and mentally.”
Pinkett Smith also claimed that she suffered from malicious rumors because she was a woman and had a scandal. This is in relation to a time when a controversy arose when a scene of violence at an awards ceremony was caught on camera, in which he looked at her husband while listening to the host’s remarks. At the time, some claimed that Pinkett Smith had sent an implicit message to her husband telling him to scold the host, and that was why Will Smith acted so unexpectedly, and malicious comments poured in. Regarding this, Jada told the NYT, “In the end, it’s a common narrative in Hollywood that it’s the woman’s fault that the man goes down,” and added, “I don’t know why this interpretation is being spread as if it’s true.”
What is Pinkett Smith’s state of mind right now? He told the NYT, “In the end, it’s the devil in my heart that hurts my heart. I decided to let that devil go, I feel relieved, and I hope you do too.”
Sujin Jeon (chun.sujin@joongang.co.kr)
