Will Smith revealed Floyd Mayweather called him up every day for 10 days straight to check in after the actor slapped Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars.
According to the Daily Mail Men In Black actor Will, 54 – who faced career downfall when he hit Chris, 57, in March after the star made an ill-advised joke about his wife Jada – praised ‘forever dude’ Floyd, 45, for his kindness.
In a video obtained by TMZ, the star, speaking at a recent event in London to promote new film Emancipation, said: ‘I want to say something also about Floyd. So, we’ve met each other, we’ve seen each other around, but we weren’t like, friends.
‘And, the day after the Oscars, for 10 days he called me every day. ‘And, he was like, “ay, you know you the champ, right? You good? You know you the champ, right? I want you to hear my voice say it.”‘
‘That was every day he called me… and it’s like, that’s my dude forever right there.’
Will Smith gave a private screen of Emancipation to @FloydMayweather last night. Will told a story — Floyd called him 10 days straight after Oscars incident w/ Chris Rock. At the time, Floyd & Will were just acquaintances, but Mayweather was concerned about Smith. A good friend. pic.twitter.com/r2OwBusGN2
— michael j. babcock (@mikejbabcock) October 28, 2022
Independence Day star Smith’s on-stage slap sent shockwaves around the world, with the star later saying he was left incensed by a joke Rock made about his wife’s lack of hair, which she shaved off to cover up hair loss she had experienced.
Despite sweeping the Oscars up in controversy, Smith still won the award for Best Actor for starring as the father of Venus and Serena Williams in King Richard.
Smith’s latest film is a historical thriller directed by Antoine Fuqua, in which the Fresh Prince actor stars as an enslaved man named Peter who escapes from a Louisiana plantation and braves treacherous territory and slave hunters to make it up north to Union territory, where he is able to join the fight against the Confederacy.
The film was inspired by the life of a former slave immortalized in horrifying photos of his back, which was covered in spiderwebbing keloid scars from repeated whippings.
