Willow Smith Speaks On Reaction To Famous Father’s Oscars Slap

When Will Smith walked on stage to smack Chris Rock at the Oscars, the whole world reacted. Everyone from celebrities to the media to everyday people had a hot take.

But daughter Willow Smith said it didn’t impact her like you might think.

Willow, 21, actually told Billboard that the reaction “didn’t rock me as much as my own internal demons.”‘

In fact, she indicated, strong reactions really are just human nature.

“I see my whole family as being human and I love and accept them for all their humanness,” she said. “Because of the position that we’re in, our humanness sometimes isn’t accepted, and we’re expected to act in a way that isn’t conducive to a healthy human life and isn’t conducive to being honest.”

Will Smith resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences following the incident, and Willow posted some tweets that everyone tried to decode shortly after.

“The meaning of life is found in challenge,” she wrote, adding, “Life is a series of reactions.”

The incident occurred following a few jokes made by Rock about Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair loss as part of his dialogue. Will Smith initially smiled before yelling, “Keep my wife’s name out your f—ing mouth!” 

Smith then walked up to the stage and slapped Rock across the face.

“Oh wow,” Rock said in his reaction. “Will Smith just smacked the s— out of me.”

Smith was banned from the Academy for 10 years, though he is still eligible to be nominated and receive awards. He has since apologized to Rock.