On Sunday, Will Smith won the award for the Best Actor at Oscars 2022 for his role in King Richard. In his acceptance speech, the actor got emotional and broke down.
Will Smith’s emotional speech
Minutes after Will Smith smacked Chris Rock in the face for making fun of Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair loss, he won Best Actor for his role in King Richard, directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green. He said ‘At your highest moment, be careful, that’s when the devil comes for you.”
After a small skirmish with Chris Rock, it was surely a what’s-he-going-to-do moment, and Smith lived up to expectations.
In his emotional speech, Will Smith said, “Richard Williams was a fierce defender of his family. At this time in my life, I am overwhelmed by what God is calling on me to do and be in this world. I want to apologize to Academy, I want to apologize to all my fellow nominees. This is a beautiful moment and I am not crying for winning an award. It’s not about winning an award for me. Art imitates life. I look like the crazy father, just like Richard Williams. But love will make you do crazy things.”
It takes a lot being in this business
“I’m being called on in my life to love people and to protect people and to be a river to my people. I know to do what we do, you got to be able to take abuse. You got to be able to have people talk crazy about you. In this business, you got to be able to have people disrespecting you. And you got to smile and you got to pretend like that’s okay,” he said.
He also talked about her mother’s absence from the award show, as she was busy knitting with her friends.
“To my mother, a lot of this moment is difficult for me but I — she didn’t want to come out. She’s had her knitting friends. She has a knitting crew that she’s in Philly watching with — being able to love and care for my mother, my family, my wife.”
“I’m taking up too much time. Thank you for this award. Thank you for this instant. I thank you on behalf of Richard and for seeing the entire Williams family. Thank you. Hoping the academy invites me back. Thank you,” he concludes.
Meanwhile, the other nominees for the Best Actor award were Javier Bardem for Being the Ricardos, Benedict Cumberbatch for The Power of the Dog, Andrew Garfield for Tick, TickBoom! and Denzel Washington for The Tragedy of Macbeth.
