Director Antoine Fuqua says Will Smith‘s latest star vehicle, ‘Emancipation’, is “bigger” than the Oscars controversy that preceded it.
The director of Will Smith’s latest star vehicle, Emancipation, has said that the movie is “bigger” than the Oscars controversy that preceded it, which saw Smith slapping award presenter Chris Rock after the comedian made an unfavorable joke about his wife.
Directed by Antoine Fuqua of the Training Day and The Equalizer trilogies, Emancipation is inspired by the real-life story of escaped slave Gordon, and follows Peter (Smith) as he journeys North from a Louisiana plantation to join the Union Army. The forthcoming drama is set to hit theaters on December 2, followed by its streaming release on Apple TV+.
While speaking with Vanity Fair ahead of his film’s premiere, Fuqua said, “The film to me is bigger than that moment,” referring to slapgate, before adding, “Four hundred years of slavery is bigger than one moment.”
He expressed, “My hope is that people will see it that way and watch the movie and be swept away with the great performance by Will and all the real hard work that the whole crew did.
