since then will Smith He won an Oscar – and slapped Chris Rock – His career was in a free fall. Now the new prince is out to prove that there is still some shine to his crown.
Apple released the new movie Release from the director Antoine Fuqua (training day) and starring Smith as Peter, a enslaved man who escapes from Louisiana in search of his family and ends up joining the Union Army.
The fate of the movie as well A number of Smith’s projectsHe was in the air after a slap-not-seen-but-talk-about-the-world. But Apple that produced Release, hosted a presentation with the NAACP during the Congressional Black Foundation’s 51st Annual Legislative Conference before an audience of social impact leaders, indicating her intent to release the film soon. With the Oscars approaching.
Nelson Barnard/Getty Images Will Smith wins Best Actor for King Richard at the 2022 Academy Awards
After screening, Smith, who has You kept your eye out a bit Since the last Academy Awards, he has engaged in a conversation with Fuqua, and Mary Elliott, curator of American slavery at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture moderated by political and cultural commentator Angela Ray.
“Throughout my career, I’ve rejected many films that were about slavery,” Smith said on the show. “I never wanted to be shown like this. Then this picture came out. This is not a movie about slavery. This is a movie about freedom. This is a movie about resilience. This is a movie about faith.”
New York Harper’s Weeklythe most widely read magazine during the Civil War, published an infamous photograph of a realist Peter, (or Gordon or “Peter’s Skin”) with horrific scars on his back in 1863. The photograph, which Smith referred to as the “first viral photograph,” provided Northerners with visual evidence of the brutality of slavery and inspired free blacks to join the Union Army.
“This is a movie about a man’s heart — what you might call the first viral picture,” Smith said. “The cameras were just set up, and the image of ‘Peter Scrambled’ went viral around the world. It was a rallying cry against slavery, and this was a story that exploded and blossomed in my heart and I wanted to be able to communicate it to you in a way that only Antoine Fuqua could achieve.”
The film and Smith were greeted with a warm reception, with NAACP President and CEO Derek Johnson calling it “A story of adversity, resilience, love and victory. “
However, Smith and Release generate no oscar fanfare, Smith will not be able to attend the party or any celebration for another 10 years.
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