Will Smith may have slapped, but he was not the one who spat. At the beginning of this year, the world saw one of its biggest stars climb up on stage and smack the host at a stage that many worship. The Will Smith Oscar slap will be something that will never be forgotten because among the parties involved was a live audience actively commenting on every move.

While Smith’s friendly image, which he spent years making, went down the drain, many still had hope in him as an actor. And Emancipation was going to be huge for him. Not just because of the symbolism in its name, but also because the movie was depicting the horrors of slavery. And Smith had an experience, dare we say, equally baffling as the Oscar slap on his very first days.

Why did Will Smith get spat on?

If this had happened after the Oscar slap gate, it would have made much more sense. But the fact that Will Smith, one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, was spat on long before anyone could foreshadow the slap is truly shocking. The actor who has been promoting his latest movie revealed this detail in a teaser of his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith’s Facebook Watch show, Red Table Talk. “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, said Smith.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=468629072091558

The Men in Black actor was recounting the incident to his three kids, Trey, Jaden, and Willow. But contrary to the Jada Smith joke Chris Rock made at the Oscars, Smith took this one pretty well. “I was like, ‘Makeup!’ No, but it was like… I was like, whoa, every actor on this set was taking it really, really seriously.”

Little did Smith know that he too was going to take a joke “really, really seriously.” Furthermore, the incident earned a round of laughter from his kids.

After the slap, Oscar very much went into hiding, only emerging months later when he did an interview with Trevor Noah. The movie has been congratulated for its brilliance in terms of casting, storyline, and direction. And while it is unclear if this is going to Smith’s Emancipation, seeing how the actor was fine, even being spat on shows how wonderful he is as a performer.

Did you like Will Smith’s performance in Emancipation? Let us know in the comments below.