Minutes before Will Smith won an Academy Award for portraying Serena Williams’ father in the biopic King Richard, he threw The Slap Heard ‘Round The World at Chris Rock. Nearly a year later, in an interview with Gayle King broadcast on Wednesday, Williams broke her silence 0n the incident. “I thought [King Richard] was such an incredible film, and I feel that there was an incredible film after that with Questlove [Summer of Soul] that kind of was overshadowed,” she told King on CBS Mornings. “But I also feel that I’ve been in a position where I’ve been under a lot of pressure and made a tremendous amount of mistakes, and I’m the kind of person that’s like, ‘I’ve been there. I’ve made a mistake.’ It’s not the end of the world.” Williams continued, “We’re all imperfect, and we’re all human, and let’s just be kind to each other. So, that’s often forgotten a lot.” It remains to be seen whether the Academy will take the tennis legend’s words to heart, but hey—the voting body has been swayed by stranger grassroots pushes.
