Actor Will Smith apologized via Instagram on Monday to comedian Chris Rock, whom he had slapped the night before on the Oscars stage following a joke regarding the close-cropped hair of his wife Jada Pinkett Smith, who suffers from alopecia .
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“My behavior last night at the Oscars was unacceptable and inexcusable. Jokes at my expense are part of the job, but a joke regarding Jada’s health issue was too much for me and I reacted emotionally,” says the 53-year-old actor, who won an Oscar for his role. in “The Williams Method”.
“I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. What I did was inappropriate and I was wrong,” he continued, also apologizing to the organizers and guests of the Oscars evening.
This apology from Will Smith comes shortly following the Academy of Oscars announced the opening of an internal investigation into this incident, which it “condemns” formally.
“Violence, in any form, is toxic and destructive,” Will Smith wrote in his message, assuring that his “actions have not been representative of the man I want to be”.