Will Smith’s comeback has been a disaster – but does the punishment fit the crime?
The Fresh Prince wants the world to love him again, writes Fiona Sturges. But he’s going about it the wrong way, with the most tortured career resurrection in recent times
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/will-smith-ai-music-comeback-b2819887.htmlOpen linkView original on piefed.blahaj.zone113
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His career was on the wane before he acted like an asshole at the Oscars. I loved him as a kid and still love some of his movies, but he was the upstart smartass. That doesn't work when you're 50+ and he doesn't have the range to be more than that.
He lost any semblance of cool with Pinkett's affair and the slap. He is desperate to get it back but that's not really going to be possible. Had he not slapped Rock he might have been able to lean into being a more sentimental figure at this stage but that too has passed.
I don't know. She didn't really have any bearing on his decline before that point. I assume those that knew about their celebrity life and her affair did, but that wasn't most people.
It's hard to know if the slap was out of character as we don't know him. However it was out of character for his image. And image is your brand.
He thinks he's still 20 years old in Miami in the 90s. He has no appreciation for the fact that he has changed and rap has changed. No one wants to hear a creepy old man singing about offering jetskis to get with girls at a club.
I think when he was rapping, it was always a watered down pop, gentle version anyway. That was fine, because it was fun. Music doesn't have to be meaningful. But as you say, there is no growth there.
He's tri d a few times to have growth in his acting, chasing the Oscar. However, his strength was the smart talking kid who thinks he knows better, but gets schooled by life only to learn a life lesson.
Fresh prince, MIB. They were awesome.
Ali, not so much.
I actually loved Seven Pounds
he kinda disappeared after mi3, and the other various movies hes been in.
he's rich. he never has to worry about anything in his life. he doesn't "need" a comeback.
so he has to do is chill and enjoy life. and he's still not happy????
He's an actor. He needs an an audience. He wants to be remembered positively, hopefully for a very long time.
he can retire. i still think of MIB and Fresh prince when I hear his name.
he already won. just don't fuck it up by being greedy
I think what the above commenter wants to say is that it's not about greed but the attention. I think of HP Baxter from Scooter. Looong past his peak, but when you see his show live you see that he simply loves to be on stage with the crowd cheering and dancing. I don't wanna defend attention whores in general, just explaining it a bit.
hes like the rock basically, wants attention and glory nothing matters, his acting shitty.
Just retire, Stale Prince.
Fuck Will Smith. Be forgotten, dickhead.
I believe in forgiveness, but what he needs to do is ask for it and he shows zero signs of understanding what he did wasn’t right.
The real victim here is Jaden. Imagine your dad not handing you movie roles anymore because he fucked his own career. So unfair.
I loved the Left 4 Dead 2 mod that replaced the game graffiti with Jaden tweets
im guessing why jaden is going to different relationships, will cant be a good SO.
Fuck that guy. Don't come back, you hear?
Back up! Back up!
Mind ya business y'all. Just mind ya business.
He’s a notorious prick. He deserves all the negative attention he gets. Him crashing out repeatedly recently has only solidified his publicly perceived image as an unstable, insecure, abusive, corny, try-hard, iamverybadass, cuckold that gives everyone the ick.
He should’ve quit while he was ahead before he made every movie role a version of himself and focused on building his childrens’ futures or doing something for the greater good with his fortune. But no, he can’t let anything go. He has to try and control everything. And the more that goes sideways the more unhinged he becomes. It would be sad if he wasn’t such a selfish ass.
thats kinda make since why alan tudyk was pissed that he wasnt the lead cast over will smith. will probably has in his contract that he needed a "better actor" than he is and makes them less than a shittier role so it make will feel superior. alan seems to have bad luck passed over for will smith, and resident alien getting cancelled.
Why?
The guys a multi millionaire ... it doesn't matter if he had a come back or not, he's still a millionaire.
You have to be a moron to want more than that.
He probably likes being famous.
Hes still famous. Hes just risking his legacy.
Smith is an awesome ensemble actor. He has great chemistry with his co-stars in buddy movies, be it MIB, Bad Boys, Hitch or even Independence Day. As Fresh Prince, he had a whole cast to play off. But he can't carry a movie where he's the only star. It becomes evident that he doesn't have the range, and his attempts to act come across as forced. I think people already realised it and are avoiding such movies. The Bad Boys franchise proves that he's still a bankable co-star, and hopefully he'll accept that position in his future work, rather than soloing vanity movies.
Vanity movies, that's what those are. Thank you for that phrase, it all makes sense now
He hasn't done anything good since mib anyway
He's been crap for years. He should fuck off and live in obscurity on the undeserved fortune he's already accumulated.
and i thought that jada pinka smith and him was unjustified, maybe it was?
I don't care for the slap. Like, I really, really don't care.
I don't see his failed comeback as punishment, it's just evidence he can't make anything good anymore. He's not owed a comeback, and failing to comeback is not 'punishment'
I used to really like him. He came across as really charismatic but after the slap and finding out that he was not in the Scientology box but had his head pressed right up against it, I figured screw this guy.
and being jada pinka "punching bag" too.
Its forced and cringe worthy.
Name something he's done in the last 10 years that wasn't cringe worthy.
I can't name anything he has done in the past 10 years
slapping chris rock.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
There’s something ironic about him being able to act like a mature, stable adult on film back in the day but then doesn’t follow through to be genuine in the real day once he’s older
No. He hasn't been punished enough. Dude needs to fade away.
jada pinka should clamped harder on her punishment.
Someone needs to slap him off his feet on good morning america.
Uh he slapped a man for a joke about his wife that is (separately and unrelatedly) cucking him. And he raised Jaiden Smith. Nah, keep the punishment coming
Do you think the shark gets tired of being jumped over?
people said as much, hes too much like the rock, wants to be center attention in the roles hes been. alan tudyk said as much.
Didn't know about that. I actually try not to "meet my heroes." It's so depressing.
Paywall
I think I might be OOTL. Why does everyone here hate him? I know he slapped the comedian, but it didn't seem SO unprovoked, and AFAIK its the only thing. It's not great that he did that, but I wouldn't hang him for that
He's very dated and shows no self awareness about that. He was always bland, fun rap, which is fine, but it's not highly skilled. He also recently did a truly cringy music video where he's in his 50s and perving after 20 year old. He just don't seem to have moved forwards from the 90s
“Vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, lemon”
He’s so old
Oh my God. That was just...terrible.
I know. When I first saw the social media comments about it I thought they must be bring unfair. Then I saw the video...
Unprovoked‽ Bro, dude is a known less than PC comedian they brought to HOST the ceremony. Idc if he said he fucked will Smith's wife, that's part of the act! Would say it's unprovoked if some nobody walked on stage and slapped Jeff Acuri? Will Smith's has suffered less than zero consequences as proven by this vanity tour.
Asking he go to jail for a month or two isn't calling for him to be hanged. It's calling for actual consequences from someone who performed an entirely unprovoked act of violence. Anybody not famous would probably spend close to a year in jail if they did that to any performer.
assaulting someone is provacation, and it makes look like a petty aggressive human.
He didn’t do anything wrong, at least not more so than you or me, he’s just not funny anymore. And his serious stuff was always very meh.
He didn’t keep up with the times.
He's a scientologist that made a scientology propaganda movie together with his son. Doesn't get more cringe than that.
Ahh I didn't realise he was in the cult.
Not officially. But he's best friend with Cruise and his kids went to Scientology schools.
Dang, that's disappointing.
I thought Will Smith was one of the better celebrities. I don't keep up with this stuff, though.
Oh damn I didn't know he boarded the scientology kooky boat.
I sometimes wonder if those celebrities are being paid though. I have no evidence of that, it just seems like something Scientology would do to try to gain traction.
I mean, they purposely recruit Hollywood stars to help lend credence to their cult. They don't treat them the same as the normies and just basically shower them with praise and adoration to make them think Scientology is awesome.
Which one was the propaganda movie?
After Earth
I suspected it was that one. I never knew it had anything to do with Scientology when I first watched it, I just know that it was pretty terrible. Thanks for the answer.
I'd argue that Travolta's scientology movie was cringier
Didn't he punch some guy in the face for making a joke? Pretty sure I've never done that...
I thought he slapped a man for making a joke? I can see why many folks would see little difference, I mean violence is violence, but if we're talking degrees Id rather get doses of slap then punch. Still unacceptable in the situation, however, and I believe what ever issue Will had that night skills have been handled in private.
All that being said, the man has aged and people move on.
Will Smith is 6'2" and played Muhammed Ali. I can think of a lot of people I'd rather have punch me than get slapped by Will Smith.
I saw the slap. There wasn't much in it. Rock wasn't going to end up with a detached retina or a brain bruise from that bit of patty-cake. All it did was reinforce the view that Smith's a smug, egocentric lightweight who can't take a joke. Also, he's a limited actor, and his "musical" career consisted of some vaguely rap-shaped throwaway pop dreck that most people would be ashamed to put their name to. And his ears are too small.
He slapped a friend for a cheating whore that humiliated him a few months later, she was the biggest mistake he ever made, she was basically a stone drowning him while he was gasping for air and for that he's not just an asshole but a dumbass and there's also his cult bs, he could have had the world if he wasn't so stupid.
Tupac died just to get away from her
Chris rock.
He made a joke about Jada’s Alocopeia (the hair condition thing, if I spelled that right.) and also some jokes about their open relationship.
So, most of us can understand the impulse, I imagine. And most of us have enough sense not to make fun of medical conditions on a stage that large. To their face.
Alopecia
Will laughed at the joke just as hard as everyone else, looked back at Jada glaring at him and decided to do a bit of performative violence.
He did that as an apology for laughing, he did that because he thought that's what Jada wanted in that moment. If some asshole does that in a bar, they get the cops called on them. The whole action was not only cringe, it was as much of an act as his entire bullshit speech when they actually let him accept an award later.
The Oscar's should have stopped the show and had the police escort him out. Instead they awarded him later. Chris Rock made him look like such a bitch in his tour a few years later, it was beautiful. That man acted appropriately, and got his back later.
I can't imagine looking at this action in the whole and seeing any justification. Which is why he's finding a come back so hard.
Ya'll tell on yourselves too much when you say things like "most."
Seems like you understand it quite well.
You’ll notice there’s a difference between understanding a motivation or impulse and acting on it, or indeed, condoning the act.
And we can also quite happily describe what Will did as wrong, just as we can be critical of Chris for making the joke in the first place.
That you seem think Will’s action invalidates any inappropriateness in Chris’s actions is itself pretty telling.
IMO they both suck. And we can say what the Oscar’s should have done with Will. I don’t really care. Cops aren’t going to press charges if the person assaulted doesn’t call for it regardless of where it happened. But also Oscar’s should have vetted that speech and been like “maybe don’t make fun of a person’s medical condition.” Which likely would have headed the whole matter off. Details.
Chris Rock is awesome, they hired him to be hilarious and he was. In no world is Will's 2nd reaction to the funny but lightly tasteless joke (man if they had waited to respond after the Oscar's, they would have eviscerated Chris Rock instead) appropriate. Again it was another performance, and you fell for it cause somehow you are putting both their actions on the same playing field. They aren't, no majority of people think that way either. Again that's why Will is going through this, he is the villain.
Also you need to stop watching TV and movies, police and the DA have the ultimate authority to press charges in the US and they do it all the time. The law isn't not-broken cause one party didn't press charges. That's honestly kinda adorable. The reason he didn't get arrested is cause he's more rich and famous than the guy he hit, and arresting him would have been more embarrassing for the event in the moment than doing nothing. As Chris Rock once said "If OJ drove a bus, he'd be Orenthal the bus driving murderer." A normal person would have received legal consequences.
You are telling on yourself, majority of weirdos have odd opinions on violence!
Once again, because it’s pretty clear you don’t read my comments: I’m not defending Will. You can stop adding things to my comment anytime now. You can stop explaining something incredibly obvious, which I have never argued.
They’re not going to prosecute a crime where the victim doesn’t want to testify or wants it dropped.
Because those become very hard to win, and they’ve got their win/loss ratio to worry about. It isn’t about whether the crime was committed or not. It’s about if they can win in court.
Tons of crimes go unprosecuted because one reason or another makes them difficult to win This was a relatively minor, one-off incident where the victim doesn’t want to press charges and the perpetrator has stellar legal representation.
Yes, crime dramas are good, I also watch them! SVU brought the angry guy back, he's bald now tho.
You clearly haven't been to the bars I've been to.
If someone pulled that stunt in one of those bars, they'd find themselves on the floor searching for their front teeth among the sawdust. And by that time, the bouncers would show up, the slapper would get ejected and banned, and if the police were called at all, nobody would press charges and no witnesses would admit to having seen anything.
A society that would press criminal charges for a soft-boy assault like that would be even more hellish than the one we have to live in.
Lmao, ok tough guy.
That doesn't warrant getting on stage to slap a guy. And... As a guy, who slaps another guy? If you're at the point of violence, who wouldn't just throw a punch? Slapping another guy is embarrassing in and of itself.
I didn’t say it did, don’t put words in my mouth.
I did say I understood the impulse.
As for slapping instead of punching? Me.i would.
Broken hands are not fun; and once you’re there, you’re gonna want your hand working afterwards.
A well-delivered slap can ring the recipient's bell. Even so, the chances of breaking your metacarpals with a punch are exaggerated, unless you're making a square strike against bone and have a lot of punching power. The martial-arts rule of thumb is "don't hit something hard with something hard." Because of hand-wrapping and gloves, boxers don't need to consider that, and can mess up their hands if they fight barehanded and don't know better. Hence the stories of broken hands.
Not that I think Will Smith is anything but a pampered entertainer.
Also, the symbolism of slapping is significant. It was Smith giving Rock his bitch hand.
He slapped someone for making a joke about his wife. Both were kinda out of line, so it balances out.
I don't really take anyone clutching their pearls over this seriously. They need to grow some balls.
No. It was a super tame joke, and Chris Rock was literally doing exactly what he was paid to do that night. In fact, he probably didn't even write that joke
It's fine if you think that's an excuse.
You can read my second statement to see how I view people like you.
Please explain how I was clutching pearls with my comment.
Speak for yourself. He's done way more wrong than me