If there’s any single Hollywood star that has managed to completely torpedo their public persona with a PR disaster this year, Will Smith would likely be the one that comes to mind immediately. Nevertheless, while Smith may be down following ‘the slap’, but he’s certainly not out – with a first look at his new film Emancipation proving as much.
The Apple TV original is a period drama starring Will Smith, Ben Foster and Mustafa Shakir, with Smith playing the role of Peter – a slave who embarks on a cross country journey in the midst of the American civil war to secure his freedom and reunite with his family.
It looks to be a role which has pushed Smith and his acting abilities, with Smith himself noting that filming the project was one of his toughest ever gigs – saying it involved literal blood, sweat, and tears according to an Instagram post sharing the teaser.
While a two-minute teaser trailer is of course no indication of whether or not a film is any good, it looks to be a promising piece of cinema which one certainly wouldn’t rule out a few industry accolades for.
With that in mind, it would certainly be quite the spectacle for Smith to be nominated by the Academy for his work on Emancipation in the wake of what went down at the Oscars earlier this year.
Of course, regardless of how the film performs and how good Smith’s portrayal of Peter ends up being, he’s unlikely to be in attendance at the 2023 Oscars, having been banned from the event and any other Academy events or programs. This followed his infamous outburst at this year’s event, during which he rushed the stage and slapped Chris Rock, and proceeded to hurl profanities in his direction after the comic made jibes about Jada Pinkett Smith’s alopecia.
At the very least, it would begin to pave the way for something of a redemption arc for the disgraced actor. We’ll see for ourselves when Emancipation comes to theaters on Dec 2, and Apple TV Plus a week later on Dec 9.
