Will Smith has given his first talk show interview, eight months after his altercation with Chris Rock at this year's Oscars.
Appearing on Monday night's episode of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, the 54-year-old opened up about the shame he felt when he returned home after the ceremony when his nine-year-old nephew asked him: "Why did you hit that man, Uncle Will?"
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"My little nephew Dom is nine. He is the sweetest little boy. We came home," he started to explain. "He had stayed up late to see his uncle Will and we are sitting in my kitchen and he is on my lap and he is holding the Oscar and he is just like, 'Why did you hit that man, Uncle Will?'"
Reduced to tears, Will took out his tissues and joked: "Damn it. Why are you trying to Oprah me? It was a mess, you know. I don't want to go too far into it to give people more to misunderstand."
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He added: "There's many nuances and complexities to it. But at the end of the day, I just - I lost it, you know? I was going through something that night, you know? Not that that justifies my behaviour at all… It was a lot of things. It was the little boy that watched his father beat up his mother, you know? All of that just bubbled up in that moment.
Will made headlines following his altercation with Chris Rock
"That is not who I want to be. I was gone. That was a rage that had been bottled for a really long time."
Will's life was forever changed when he slapped Chris on stage after he made a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith's hair loss, but he's slowly making a comeback. He is now busy promoting his latest film, Emancipation.
Back in July, Will fought back tears in an emotional statement addressing the incident for the first time. "I've reached out to Chris and the message that came back is he's not ready to talk, and when he is, he will reach out," he said to the camera.
"So I will say to you Chris. I apologize to you. My behaviour was unacceptable and I'm here whenever you're ready to talk."
Will looked down the lens of the camera as he explained: "I've spent the last three months replaying and understanding the nuances and complexities of what happened in that moment.
"I'm not going to try to unpack that right now. I can say to all of you that there is no part of me that thinks that's the right way to behave." He added: "I'm sorry really isn't sufficient. I'm human and I made a mistake."
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