Antoine Fuqua, the director of Emancipation, hopes that the audience will be able to look beyond Will Smith’s outburst at the Oscars and end up appreciating their new venture together.
Antoine Fuqua’s new movie would be a drama about a man who manages to escape the clutches of slavery- something that had been filmed prior to the controversial moment when the actor slapped Chris Rock on stage at the Oscars on the 27th of March. Although the release date for Emancipation had not been announced at one point, Apple TV+ did announce its debut in theaters on the 2nd of December after which it would start streaming from the 9th of December, which will make it eligible for qualification at the next Academy Awards season. Now, while Smith can’t attend any Academy event for the next decade, he is still eligible to be nominated and win.
Antoine Fuqua Believes People Should Forgive Will Smith’s Outburst
The 56-year-old director informed Vanity Fair that there was never any discussion about shelving the movie after Will Smith’s outburst, but the filmmakers and the studio definitely had to make note of the situation and further decided that it definitely didn’t need any further postponement.
Antoine Fuqua stated that it went without saying that he wanted people to check his film. And his point of contention was that 400 years of slavery was definitely a more important point in history rather than a single bad moment. He also stated that in a place like Hollywood, there were loads of other individuals who had done worse things- and that didn’t stop them from receiving their awards.
Antoine Fuqua didn’t quite believe it when he saw Will Smith walk up to Chris Rock and slap him at the Oscars. He stated that he hadn’t met a nicer man than Will, and the entire scenario felt quite surreal and out-of-place for him.
