Will Smith appeared recently on The Daily Show With Trevor Noah to promote his new film Emancipation, where he plays an enslaved person named “Whipped Peter,” whose photos showed the world the vile nature of American slavery. Noah, however, led the conversation to discuss Smith’s response to his behavior at the 2021 Oscars.

“That was a horrific night, as you can imagine. There’s many nuances and complexities to it. But at the end of the day, I just — I lost it, you know?”, said Smith. “I was going through something that night, you know? Not that that justifies my behavior at all… It was a lot of things. It was the little boy that watched his father beat up his mother, you know? All of that just bubbled up in that moment. That is not who I want to be.” He continued, “I was gone. That was a rage that had been bottled for a really long time,”

Smith also shared how his family members reacted to his behavior at the Oscars.

“My nephew is nine. He is the sweetest little boy. We came home. He had stayed up late to see his uncle Will and we are sitting in my kitchen and he is on my lap and he is holding the Oscar and he is just like, ‘Why did you hit that man, Uncle Will?’ Damn it. Why are you trying to Oprah me?”

In addition, Smith described his process in deciding to take on the “Whipped Peter” role for Emancipation.

“First seeing that image was one of the things that really got me excited to explore this, because you see the image, but you don’t know who he is. You don’t know what the story is,” Smith said. “American slavery was one of the most brutal aspects of human history… It is hard to understand the level of human cruelty. My daughter asked me, ‘Daddy, do we really need another slave movie?’ I said, ‘Daby, I promise you, I wouldn’t make a slave movie. This is a freedom movie.’”

Emancipation will have a limited release in theaters on December 2 before streaming on Apple TV+ starting December 9.

Stay tuned to mxdwn for more Will Smith news and reviews for upcoming films.