Why did you hit that man, Uncle Will? Smith recalls shame returning home to his nephew

Los Angeles: Will Smith is continuing his press tour for his new movie Emancipation, giving his first talk show interview since his now-infamous Oscar slap of Chris Rock.

The actor appeared on Monday night’s episode of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, where he revealed there was a ‘rage’ inside him that night.

He also added that, when he got home after the ceremony, his nine-year-old nephew was waiting and had seen the slap, asking him, ‘Why did you hit that man, Uncle Will?’ Will revealed on the show, ‘My little nephew Dom is nine. He is the sweetest little boy. We came home,’ when the nephew asked him a question. ‘He had stayed up late to see his uncle Will and we are sitting in my kitchen and he is on my lap and he is holding the Oscar and he is just like, “Why did you hit that man, Uncle Will?”‘ Smith said. He then took out his tissues and looked at Noah, joking, ‘Damn it. Why are you trying to Oprah me?’ He added, ‘It was a mess, you know. I don’t want to go too far into it to give people more to misunderstand.’

After discussing his new movie, Noah joked they hadn’t seen him for awhile, as Will began to open up about what he said was, ‘a horrific night, as you can imagine.’

‘There are many nuances and complexities to it. But at the end of the day, I just — I lost it, you know?’ Will admitted. ‘I was going through something that night, you know? Not that that justifies my behavior at all…’ he admitted.

‘It was a lot of things. It was the little boy that watched his father beat up his mother, you know? All of that just bubbled up in that moment. That is not who I want to be,’ he said. ‘I was gone. That was a rage that had been bottled for a really long time,” Will said.