Will Smith has returned from the dead.
Or at least, he’ll be coming back wherever he goes after slapping the Academy Awards host onstage in front of millions of viewers because the host made a very banal joke about his wife.
This is a long and confusing way of saying:
Bad Boys 2 was released on Friday and grossed $104.6 million worldwide this weekend.
The impressive numbers came as a surprise to some, as Smith has actually been out of the spotlight for years.
As quoted above, in March 2022, he made the shocking decision to confront Chris Rock at the Oscars after Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett’s bald head … which Rock slapped across the face at the time.
Seriously, I still can’t believe this happened.
At one point in Bad Boys 4, Smith’s character gets repeatedly slapped in the face by Martin Lawrence’s character, and I can’t help but imagine this was intentionally included to somehow allude to Smith’s bizarre behavior at the time.
“The scene functions as a kind of pop exorcism,” critic Owen Gleiberman wrote for Entertainment Weekly, explaining in his review.
“This is about ‘punishing’ Smith, cruelly mocking his transgressions, and perhaps in the process allowing him to get out from under that image.”
Of course, Smith was one of the most popular celebrities alive before The Slap.
However, he was heavily criticized for basically attacking Rock in the aforementioned way, which also led people to analyze his unorthodox marriage to Pinkett Smith.
Although the pair appear to be together, they have hinted in the past that they have an open marriage.
I’m not judging you, anything goes, you know?
For Smith, returning to a series like Bad Boys to regain attention on the big screen clearly worked out well.
Meanwhile, Smith addressed the incident, slapping Locke, in a six-minute video posted to his Instagram and YouTube accounts about two years ago.
“Chris, I apologise to you. My behaviour is unacceptable and I am here if you ever want to talk,” the actor said, addressing the comedian directly, before adding:
“I’m not going to get into all of that right now, but I can tell you, I don’t believe at all in my mind that that was the right thing to do in that moment,” Smith said.
“I have no desire to believe that this is the best way to deal with feelings of disrespect or insult…”
“I know this is a shock, but I promise you I am deeply committed and doing my best to bring light, love and joy to the world. And I promise if you hang in there we can be friends again.”
