Will Smith started way back as a rapper. And even while he was in the rapping industry, the Fresh Prince stuck to a clean-slate rapping style. Later, when he transgressed into the movie industry, with his witty nature and easygoing attitude, Smith established himself as not just a wonderful actor but also a likable celebrity in a short period. With one blockbuster after another, the actor was doing a lot of promotions and he was picking friends at the speed of his rap.

So if someone were to travel back in time and tell a person coming out of the theaters on the 4th of July after watching Mr. July that he would walk up to the stage at the Oscars and slap someone they would use Smith’s very own catchphrase “Aww Hell Naw!” But what if we tell you that this is not the first time that the Pursuit of Happiness actor has slapped someone in public?

Will Smith once slapped a journalist

Long before Smith received an Academy Award for Best Actor in 2022 only to get banned from it minutes later, he was promoting Men in Black 3. The actor was busy promoting the third installment of the most iconic film of that decade in Moscow. And in typical Will Smith style, the actor was greeting everyone with joy, that is, until a reporter tried to take things up a notch.

The journalist started kissing Smith on the mouth, and he was not having it. He further pushed the reporter and slapped him in the face. In case you were curious, no, it was not loud like the Chris Rock one, but at an event full of reporters, it had the same effect.

A swarm of comments hating on the Fresh Prince started flooding in. Many assumed that the Men in Black actor was homophobic and hence the reaction, while others said that they would do the same.

Turns out that the reporter was Vitalii Sediuk, A Ukrainian reporter known to pull such stunts to get a reaction. And considering how Smith saying, “He’s lucky I didn’t sucker punch him,” went viral along with the kiss video, he got more than he wanted. It is crazy to imagine how the viral “Keep my wife’s name out of your fu**ing mouth” was a sequel to “keep your tongue out of my fu**ing mouth.”

What do you think about the slap from the past and how similar it was to the Oscars fiasco? Let us know in the comments below.