For those who followed Will Smith‘s rise in Hollywood, the night of March 27, 2022, was a slap in OUR face too: the night that crowned Will as a cinema legend, made history, but for the wrong reasons. From then on, comedian Chris Rock – who would be legendary in his own right, but comparatively “lesser” than Will Smith – was forever linked to one of the most shocking events at the Oscars.

Since then, in the opposite direction of his predecessors, the winning actor’s star flirted dangerously with cancellation and he had to somehow “disappear” to survive. He’s back, beating everyone by managing to top 56 million dollars in the United States in a single weekend and more than 100 million around the world with Bad Boys 4: It’s All or Nothing, a film sure to give the reboot your career.

What has generated headlines is not the story (simple and superficial, like everything in the franchise) or the action scenes, but the fact that Smith tries hard to make a “joke” about his mistake, dividing opinions. That’s right, there are many slaps in his face throughout the action, in a metalanguage that says both that he is slapping his face to critics and yes, minimizing what he clearly does not see as a mistake. Wow, this slap is really “deep”.

I was a Will Smith fan, I never loved Chris Rock and I don’t like Jada Pinkett-Smith. I will make my opinion clear to avoid doubts. Chris was always a bit rude, Jada was always beautiful but arrogant and Will navigated between them friendly and authentic. His long relationship with his wife has always been turbulent and strange, but just the slap made it so clear how deeply complex and sad it is.

I disagree with a lot of my friends about a lot of things about that Oscar night. First, I understood Chris Rock‘s reference when he joked that Jada looked like G.I. Jane: the American soldier in the film starring Demi Moore was brave, winning, and iconic. But I also understood that he was joking that she “wanted” to be G.I. Jane, but he claims – and I believe – that he didn’t know that Jada’s look was because she suffers from alopecia and lost her hair. If Will had waited 20 minutes, he could have destroyed his former friend when he took the stage to accept his Oscar for Best Actor. But he, who laughed at the joke and only decided to take action when he saw that Jada frowned, let his emotions take over and ruined everything.

In recent times, having a man defend a woman’s honor was romantic. Today it is unnecessary. Will was unable to change anything who no longer sympathized with Jada, he even made the situation worse and destroyed himself in the eyes of many fans. No matter the version of the facts, Will Smith made a mistake at the time, made a mistake later, and continues to make mistakes. Chris Rock, on the other hand, did what it takes. He maintained his poise, responded sporadically, and moved on.

Shortly after the incident, both Jada and Will tried to “talk” to Chris, but on her Facebook show, to which the comedian sent a “No thanks” which was once again justified. Even the actor’s apology sounded more like a criticism of Chris than regret, something that Bad Boys 4 repeats.

Until Oscar night I believed in Will Smith’s smile and tears, but since then everything seems premeditated, a consciousness of a unique charisma. Returning to the franchise that made him a movie star is proof of that. It’s the rule of starting over from scratch, literally, to test and prove that it still has market appeal.

And here is my renewed anger: if you don’t regret it, keep your head up because you did what you thought was best. Attacking someone (physically) and then attacking morally, suggesting that the person attacked is wrong in not forgiving, and having the humor of having been slapped in the face in front of millions confirms Will Smith’s lack of sensitivity.

The international box office proves that the actor’s strategy will work, but not with me. I don’t want to see anything with or about Will Smith for a long time. No slaps.

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