“Return as a butterfly”
“Bad Boy” Will Smith feels reborn
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After the Chris Rock slap, Will Smith is banned from large parts of Hollywood in 2022. Two years later, he is celebrated at the European premiere of “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” and feels like a new person. Only his love of donuts causes problems.
A good two years after the slapping scandal at the Oscars, Hollywood star Will Smith feels reborn and draws a comparison to butterflies. “The ability to reinvent yourself, to recover and to be able to die and be reborn, so to speak, is the ultimate human ability,” the actor told reporters at the European premiere of the film “Bad Boys: Ride or Die”. “To be a caterpillar and to decay and die – and then come back as a butterfly,” the Hollywood star added vividly.
Smith slapped Chris Rock on stage at the 2022 Oscars exactly 26 months ago after he made a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. The joke referred to the short hairstyle that Will Smith's wife wore because of her hair loss caused by illness. Will Smith later apologized. However, he was banned from Academy Awards events for ten years.
In Berlin, Will Smith was very relaxed. He said it was harder to get in shape and in good condition for the new action film. “What used to take three months now takes six months.” He joked that this was half due to his age and half due to his love of donuts. With “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” Will Smith and his Frankfurt-born co-star Martin Lawrence are returning to the screen as “Bad Boys” for the fourth time.
The first part of the action film series with Smith and Lawrence as police duo Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett in Miami was released in 1995 (“Bad Boys”). This was followed by two more films in 2003 and 2020. In “Ride or Die”, which will be shown in German cinemas from June 5th, the duo uncovers a corruption scandal, but then becomes caught up in an intrigue themselves and has to flee.
