- "Emancipation" director Antoine Fuqua defended the release of his new film starring Will Smith.
- He told Vanity Fair that the film's subject is more important than Smith's Oscars scandal.
"Emancipation" director Antoine Fuqua has defended the release of his new film starring Will Smith following the actor's Oscars controversy earlier this year.
The Apple TV+ movie is Smith's first on-screen appearance since he was banned from attending the Oscar events for 10 years after slapping Chris Rock during the 94th Academy Awards in March.
Smith has since apologized publicly and said that he has reached out to apologize to Rock, however, the actor still received backlash from several comedians and fans.
Fuqua told Vanity Fair that the film was always going to come out despite the controversy surrounding the Oscars.
"It was always a full conversation with Apple. They were very sensitive to myself, to Will, to all the people who worked on the movie," Fuqua said. "There was never a conversation with me and Apple or my producers, Todd Black and Jon Mone or Heather Washington, about the movie not coming out. It was more about, 'We're assessing everything. We're seeing what people are saying.'"
He continued: "They were very careful about it. Then we showed the film to some people and their reactions were really positive, and we discussed it along the way."
Fuqua added that he thought the film's subject matter, about a runaway slave who fights through the Louisana swamp to return to his family, is more important than the Hollywood debacle.
"My conversation was always, 'Isn't 400 years of slavery, of brutality, more important than one bad moment?'" the "Training Day" director said. "We were in Hollywood, and there's been some really ugly things that have taken place, and we've seen a lot of people get awards that have done some really nasty things."
Fuqua added: "So I think Apple considered all those things, and we discussed a lot of those things. Then a decision was made by the people in charge of distribution and the money at Apple — and I'm grateful, I'm really grateful."
Fuqua also told Vanity Fair that Smith's slap did not feel "real" to him because Smith was the nicest human on set while filming "Emancipation."
"He was kind to everyone on the set," Fuqua said. "We had certain extras that were the dead bodies in the graves, and he would go give them money for laying there in that heat over 100 degrees."
Fuqua said that Smith was even able to be nice to everyone after spending months playing a character who's "brutalized and called the N-word every day."
"So no excuses for anyone or anything, but I can say that he's a good man and I hope that people can forgive him and that we can move forward," Fuqua said. "I hope Chris and Will find a way to sit together publicly, privately, whatever, and make amends. I think it would be an incredible statement."
"Emancipation" premieres in theaters on December 2 and is available to stream on Apple TV+ from December 9.