Will Smith apologizes to Chris Rock and says he doesn’t want to talk to him

Four months after slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars for making a joke about his wife and being banned from attending the event for ten years, Will Smith is now ready to hope for forgiveness.

In a six-minute YouTube video posted Friday, Smith apologized on camera for the first time to Rock, Rock’s family, his own family, the other Oscar nominees and his fans, whom he said he had disappointed.

“I reached out to Chris and the response was that he is not ready to talk and that he will come forward when he is,” Smith said. “So I want to say, Chris, I apologize to you. My behavior was unacceptable and I am here for you whenever you are ready to talk.”

In the video, he answered several questions, including why he didn’t apologize in his acceptance speech later that night and whether his wife Jada told him to do something after she rolled her eyes at Rock’s joke about alopecia.

“I made my decision on my own, based on my own experiences from my past with Chris,” he said. “Jada had nothing to do with it, sorry baby.”

Smith said he spent three months thinking about the incident, trying “not to think of myself as a piece of shit.”

“Disappointing people is my biggest trauma,” he said. “I hate it when I disappoint people and it hurts. It hurts me psychologically and emotionally to know that I didn’t live up to the image and impression that people had of me. I try to be deeply remorseful without being ashamed.”

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