While accepting his first-ever Oscar, for the role of Richard Williams in the film King Richard, later in the night, Smith tearfully apologised to the Academy for the altercation. Although he initially declined to extend that apology to Rock.
"I'm being called on in my life to love people and to protect people," Smith said. "Art imitates life."
He went on to dedicate the award to his mother and acknowledged that "a lot of this moment is really complicated for me".
That line stood out to radio host Lenard McKelvey, professionally known as Charlamagne tha God. On his popular radio show,
The Breakfast Club, McKelvey said he thought Chris Rock's joke was only a small part of why Smith lashed out.
"I don't know what the 'why' is but for Will to react like that, there's something deeper going on inside him that we don't know about," he said.
Smith has been candid about growing up in a home plagued by domestic violence. The first chapter of his autobiography, Will, opens with a harrowing description of his father attacking his mother and the actor writes that the incident defined his childhood, and ultimately led to his career.
"Within everything that I have done since then... there's been a subtle string of apologies to my mother for my inaction that day," Smith writes. "No matter how successful I've become … there is that subtle and silent feeling always pulsating in the back of my mind: that I am a coward."
