Will Smith returned to awards season festivities Wednesday evening, taking the stage to accept the Beacon Award at the African American Film Critics Association Awards. The speech marked Smith’s first in-person appearance at an awards ceremony since his controversy at the 2022 Oscars, in which the actor slapped Chris Rock onstage.
Smith’s “Emancipation” costar Charmaine Bingwa and AAFCA cofounder Gil L. Robertson introduced Smith and Antoine Fuqua, the historical drama’s director, to the stage early in the evening’s ceremony. After Fuqua’s minute-long thank you to AAFCA, Apple TV+ and the film’s cast and crew, Smith took the microphone to recount the production of the film.
“‘Emancipation’ was the individual most difficult film of my entire career. It was all outdoors, that is true,” Smith joked, earning laughs from the crowd.
“It was the second day of shooting and 110 degrees… I was in a scene with one of the white actors. The actor decided to add ad lib. So we’re doing the scene, I did my line. He did his line. And then, ad lib, he spit in the middle of my chest,” Smith said as the crowd groaned. “We did take two and the actor felt that the ad lib had gone well. So we do take two. I do my line. He does his line — and spits in the middle of my chest again… In the distance, I hear a voice. And Antoine says, ‘Hey, let’s do a take without the spit.’ And in that moment, I knew that God was real.”
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