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Will Smith Admits To Going “Too Far” For Recent Movie Role (But He Doesn’t Regret It)-TGN

Summary

  • Will Smith says he went too far in his performance as Peter for the movie Emancipation, fully immersing himself in the horrors of slavery.

  • Despite this, Smith stresses that he wouldn’t change anything and that his experience was very impactful on his life in a profound way.

  • Emancipation received mixed critical reception, with some reviewers struggling to reconcile the film’s serious historical subject matter and powerful performances with its sensationalized action sequences.

Will Smith reveals that he took his performance beyond where he should have for Emancipation, a movie in which he plays a runaway slave. Directed by Antoine Fuqua, Emancipation was released last year on Apple TV Plus. Smith plays Peter in the film, a real historical figure, with the story following the character as he escapes his plantation and embarks on an arduous journey across the swamps of Louisiana.

During a recent appearance on Kevin Heart’s Hart to Heart Peacock talk-show, Smith confesses that he took his craft too far while trying to bring Emancipation‘s true story to life.

The actor explains that, in an effort to fully embody the character, he wanted to use real, heavy chains on set, which led to a particularly stressful situation. Check out Smith’s full comment below:

“I went too far in Emancipation. Just bringing it up, I start to get teary. It’s like, I wanted to feel the degradation of slavery, and I just went too far in it. The level of human brutality, what we will do to each other… I had the chains on my neck and we were working. I wanted the real weight of them. I want the real chains. They put it on my neck and they were fitting it for size and I’m standing there, and the prop master went to put the key in and the key didn’t work.

“And I was like, ‘Oh no. Will relax.’ I’m standing there and they’re running around and they couldn’t get me out of it. I’m standing there in those chains, right on that hyperventilating edge. They found it and they got it out. Peter, the character, nobody was running around to get him out. And I just kept falling deeper and deeper into that understanding.”

“I dream about Peter still. That’s what happens when you spend that time and you push your mind that far and you just consume it. That’s what happens – it starts to leak into your subconscious. I wouldn’t give it back. It was one of the greatest experiences I’ve had as an actor. Peter introduced me to God. My faith got solid after working on that movie.”

How Was Emancipation Received?

Emancipation was the first movie to star Smith following his now-infamous slap of Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars. Smith’s reputation was quite severely damaged by the incident and general interest in Emancipation was arguably somewhat affected by this, with the movie generally coming and going with little fanfare. Prior to the film’s release, Smith himself addressed this, saying that if someone wasn’t ready to forgive him for the slap he would “absolutely respect that,” encouraging audiences to look past his involvement and embrace the craftsmanship on display from Fuqua and others who brought Emancipation to life.

Critical reception to Emancipation was mixed at best, but generally skewed negative. One of the central issues in the film had nothing to do with Smith’s committed performance as Peter, but with the film’s portrayal of its grim historical subject matter. Some reviewers stated that Emancipation leans too heavily into sensationalized action set pieces, which doesn’t really gel with the film’s otherwise very serious attempts to explore a dark period of America’s past.

The film was positioned as a possible comeback movie for Smith after the slap, but it was ultimately shut out at most major awards shows. Emancipation earned not a single Oscar nomination, for example, but Smith did end up winning the award for Outstanding Actor In A Motion Picture at the NAACP Image Awards.

Source: Peacock/ YouTube