Will Smith has recalled the shocking moment one of his Emancipation co-stars spat on him while filming a scene.
The actor, 57, is set to appear on Facebook Watch’s Red Table Talk, the series hosted by his wife Jada, 51, to chat about his new film with his three children: Trey, 30, Jaden, 24, and Willow, 22.
The movie sees Smith play Peter, a slave who flees a plantation in Louisiana and embarks on a journey to reunite with his family. It is based on the 1863 true story of “Whipped Peter”.
In a teaser from the upcoming episode, the Oscar winner spoke about how he has got “locked” into the characters he plays for longer and the toll it now takes on him.
He first shared: “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.”
The Hollywood star then went on to recall the horrifying moment his co-star spat on him during an ad-libbed page of dialogue while filming the Apple+ feature.
He said: “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…,” turning to Willow and mimicking his co-star’s action.
Pulling a shocked expression, Smith added: “I was like, ‘Makeup!’ No, but it was like… I was like, whoa, every actor on this set was taking it really, really seriously.”
The incident occurred months before the King Richard actor controversially slapped host Chris Rock at the Oscars in March after the comedian made a joke about his wife.
Smith was later banned from Academy events and programmes for 10 years over the incident and has publicly apologised twice for his actions.
Last month, he spoke out about the “horrific” night he hit the Oscars comedian and said that he “just lost it” moments before he attacked Rock on stage.
Appearing on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, he shared: “That was a horrific night, as you can imagine. You know, there’s many nuances and complexities to it. But at the end of the day, I just — I lost it, you know?
“And I guess what I would say, you just never know what somebody’s going through, you know?
“In the audience right now, you are sitting next to strangers, and somebody’s mother died last week. Somebody’s child is sick. Somebody just lost their job. Somebody just found out their spouse cheated.”
Smith said that he was “going through something” the night of the incident, but insisted his reasoning doesn’t “justify” his actions.
