Just when you thought it was safe to head back out onto the red carpet, Will Smith has appeared to collect his first acting trophy in-person since the slap heard around the world did a stellar job of torpedoing his reputation as one of the most popular and beloved stars of the modern era.
Of course, the King Richard star has shown plenty of atonement in the aftermath of the infamous Academy Awards fiasco, and he’s even found the time to poke fun at the situation on social media, but there wasn’t a mention of the biggest elephant in any room he walks into when he took to the stage to accept the Beacon Award at the African American Film Critics Association Awards.
Instead, the Oscar-winner thanked everyone in the room – as well as Apple – for bringing Emancipation to life, even if the hard-hitting historical thriller was greeted by a reception that could generously be described as muted.
“I want to thank Gil and AAFCA. I want to thank all of you in this room for doing what you do, keeping our stories alive. I want to thank Apple, because the budget was one thing. And then the budget was another thing. And then the budget was another thing. And Apple never flinched. It was the first time I had heard from a studio that the story was more important than how much it costs to get it done… They make iPhones. They can do it.”
With a budget estimated to be at least $120 million, Smith wasn’t kidding when he praised Apple for putting its hands into its admittedly very deep pockets, even if the investment may not have been worth the reward. On the plus side, the actor did offer an update on his next project which is destined to do a turn at the box office, with the returning Bad Boys 4 headliner voicing his happiness “to be back with the same people.”