Will Smith was stunned when one of his ‘Emancipation’ co-stars spat in his face.
The incident came during an improvised scene for the slavery drama after Will’s infamous Oscar ceremony slap of comedian Chris Rock.
Will, 54, made the admission in a preview clip for a new episode of his family’s Facebook Watch series ‘Red Table Talk’ released on Tuesday, which marks first time he has taken over the show from his wife Jada, 51.
The Oscar-winner told his children Trey, 30, Jaden, 24, and Willow, 22, who appear with him on the show about the unnamed actor on the ‘Emancipation’ set: “As the years have gone on I’ve gotten more and more locked into these characters for longer periods of time.
“And it’s just the weight of this story, the weight of these experiences – the quality of these actors. It was emotionally, it was physically, it was spiritually taxing.
“One of the first days on set, there is a scene with one of the actors and he leans down in my face and says, ‘You a cold one, ain’t you?’ and then he ad-libbed… .”
Will then turns to his daughter Willow and imitates a spitting gesture, adding: “I was like, ‘Makeup!’ No, but it was like… I was like, ‘Whoa, every actor on this set was taking it really, really seriously’.”
‘Emancipation’ is based on the true story of a slave known as ‘Whipped Peter’ after a famous image showing his wounded back helped exposed the barbarism of slave owners to the world.
Will, who has a 10-year ban from attending the Oscar ceremony after he assaulted Chris, 57, at this year’s ceremony, has spoken of his fears the slap would block the film’s chances of getting awards from the Academy.
He said: “The only discomfort my heart has around that is that so many people have done spectacular work on this film.
“My hope is that my team isn’t penalised at all for my actions. I think Antoine (Fuqua – the director) and Robert (Richardson – the cinematographer) and (actors) Ben (Foster) and Charmaine (Bingwa)… everyone has done such spectacular work.
“I definitely lose a couple winks of sleep every night thinking that I could have potentially penalized my team, but I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that everyone gets seen in the light that they deserve.”
