Karwai Tang
Will Smith has been the subject of much if not all the controversy this year after his actions at the Oscar’s where he slapped comedian Chris Rock, when the latter made a joke at the expense of Will Smith’s wife Jada. The controversy caused Will to go underground for a significant period of time but he recently resurfaced on social media offering an apology and explanation for his actions in a YouTube video.
Now, Will is going to be returning to the big screen in his latest film Emancipation. Of course, Will has not been offered many roles since his actions at the Oscars because no studio wants an actor with so much controversy around them, but work on Emancipation began way back in 2020. It was delayed due to the locations of the film having to be shifted out of Georgia on account of the controversial Election Integrity Act. And then of course, the Oscars incident did not help either.
The film is owned by Apple and according to latest reports while there was initially some hesitancy to release the film in the awards season this year among Apple executives, after the recent test screenings of the film, they are having some change of plans. Apparently, the test screenings have had some very positive reviews and the viewers in the test screenings were not at all taken aback at Will’s performance but were rather impressed by it.
This has given Apple some confidence that perhaps people are ready to move past the Oscars incident which is why they are considering an awards season release for this year.
Of course, Will Smith has resigned from the Academy and has been banned from attending the Oscars for about 10 years, he is still allowed to be nominated for an award and he is very much allowed to win one.
Should Emancipation be released and nominated for an Academy Award it could be Will’s way back into mainstream media, but will the wider public react the same way as the test screening audience? That remains to be seen.
