Will Smith is slowly making his return back to social media.
On Friday, the Oscar winner shared a video on Instagram of a young gorilla poking and lurking around a grown gorilla. In the short clip, the young gorilla comes up and pokes the grown gorilla’s back then runs away. It then comes back and does the same thing for a second time, but this time the adult gorilla runs after the little one in frustration. The video has an overlaying text that reads “Me trying to get back on social media.”
The 53-year-old actor’s post comes three weeks after he broke his silence on the infamous incident between him and Chris Rock at this year’s Academy Awards.
On July 29, he shared a lengthy video on Instagram answering questions about that incident, saying he is “deeply remorseful,” adding that he’d been replaying and thinking deeply about the complexities of what happened over the past three months.
“I’m not going to try to unpack all of that right now, but I can say to all of you, there is no part of me that thinks that was the right way to behave in that moment,” he said in the video. “No part of me that thinks that is the optimal way to handle a feeling of disrespect or insult.”
Will had slapped Chris after he’d made a joke about the hairstyle of the “King Richard” star’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, who suffers from alopecia. The Oscar winner stressed in his video that Jada hadn’t prompted him to take action.
“I made a choice on my own, from my own experiences, from my history with Chris,” he said. “Jada had nothing to do with it. I’m sorry, babe. I wanna say sorry to my kids and my family for the heat that I brought on all of us.”
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View GalleryShortly after the slap, Will won the award for best actor. In his video, he said that he didn’t apologize to the comedian during his acceptance speech because he was “fogged out by that point,” but has since tried to mend fences.
Following the incident, the “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” star revealed he resigned from the Academy after he received backlash for slapping Chris.
The “Men In Black” actor released a statement confirming his decision to step down.
“I have directly responded to the Academy’s disciplinary hearing notice, and I will fully accept any and all consequences for my conduct. My actions at the 94thAcademy Awards presentation were shocking, painful, and inexcusable,” the statement read in part.
-Emely Navarro