Will Smith’s reasoning for rejecting a movie role is coming back to haunt him, as social media users refuse to forget the actor’s infamous Oscar-night slap.
In 2016, Smith took part in The Hollywood Reporter’s star-studded Actor Oscar Roundtable alongside Mark Ruffalo, Benicio Del Toro, Joel Edgerton, Samuel L. Jackson, and Michael Cain.
The conversation featured Smith, 56, explaining why he passed on an opportunity to portray the titular role in filmmaker Quentin Tarantino’s 2012 classic “Django Unchained” motion picture, alongside Jackson.
“I had said yes to ‘Django.’ But it was more about the creative direction of the story,” Smith told his fellow Hollywood leading men. “We sat for hours and hours and hours about it. I wanted to make that movie so badly.”
The Philadelphia native continued, “But with that story, I felt the only way I could make that movie is it had to be a love story, not a vengeance story. I don’t believe in violence as the reaction to violence.”
Jamie Foxx was cast as Django Freeman in the 1850s-set western centered around the freed slave attempting to save his wife, Broomhilda, played by Kerry Washington, from a vicious plantation owner, played by Leonardo DiCaprio.
Like with many of his films, Tarantino displayed over four dozen exaggerated, graphic depictions of fights and other acts of violence in “Django Unchained.”
“It has to be for love. That’s the only way he can retrieve his love is to do this. He can’t want to be this… No, no, no. Violence begets violence. For me, I just couldn’t connect to violence being the answer. Love had to be the answer,” Smith said about ‘Django’ in the THR roundtable discussion.
Those nine-year-old remarks by Smith resurfaced on X in August 2025, which led to the “Wild Wild West” rapper facing heavy scrutiny from fans. In particular, critics accused him of eventually being hypocritical since he embraced violence at the 94th Academy Awards in 2022.
The coverage of that year’s ceremony was dominated by reactions to Smith slapping Chris Rock on stage after the comedian made a joke about the shaved head of the Best Actor winner’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
“That’s rich. The guy who walked on stage at the Oscars to conduct violence upon someone for telling a joke, telling us that someone’s violence in art violated his moral standards. To call that man a hypocrite is an insult to hypocrites,” an X user declared.
Similarly, someone posted, “Says the guy who slapped Chris Rock.” A second person joked, “No slapping allowed, so no Will Smith.” A third tweeted, “Chris Rock’s cheek wishes this statement was what Will Smith really believed.”
Other moviegoers pointed out that Smith has starred in numerous films throughout his career — such as 1995’s “Bad Boys,” 1996’s “Independence Day,” and 2004’s “I, Robot” — that had violent acts written in the script.
“Almost every movie that Will Smith was in during the 90s and early 2000s, violence was the answer. Why does anyone listen to celebrities?” one individual on the X platform wondered.
A Smith defender replied, “He means that he didn’t want vengeance to be the motivator. He wanted the violence to be done in the name of love. Probably wanted them to alter it so that Django was doing everything he did to save Broomhilda.”
Meanwhile, one tweeter looked to put the blame on Pinkett, writing, “I understand that this came out before he slapped Chris Rock. Can we all agree that his wife messed him up badly?”
The “slap heard ‘round the world” in 2022 did come with consequences for Smith. Following a formal review, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences barred him from attending any Academy events for 10 years.
However, later that year, he played Peter, an enslaved man who risks everything to escape captivity in the movie “Emancipation.” While his character himself does not commit acts of violence, the film vividly depicts brutality and highlights the relentless violence of slavery.
Wait a minute: pic.twitter.com/558iXcvCOE
— Rolland Bere (@RollandBere) August 13, 2025
By that point, Smith had already preemptively resigned from the academy and offered a public apology to Rock. Fast-forward to June 2025, Smith referenced the incident during his “Fire in the Booth” freestyle with British DJ Charlie Sloth.
“If you talkin’ crazy out your face up on the stage and disrespect me on the stage, expect me on the stage. Jokers dish it out, cry foul when it’s time to take it. City full of real ones, wasn’t raised to fake it,” the Grammy Award winner rapped.
Smith returned to his hip-hop roots by releasing the “Based on a True Story” studio LP in March 2025. The father of three found greater commercial and critical success with his big screen comeback in 2024’s “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” movie. The buddy cop action comedy grossed $405 million at the global box office and scored favorable reviews.
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