In the lead-up to the release of Will Smith’s highly-anticipated Apple TV+ movie, “Emancipation,” the film’s director Antoine Fuqua is speaking out as he defends his decision to move ahead with the project after Will’s controversial year

In the lead-up to the release of Will Smith’s highly-anticipated Apple TV+ movie, “Emancipation,” the film’s director Antoine Fuqua is speaking out as he defends his decision to move ahead with the project after Will’s controversial year. 

When the 54-year-old hopped onto the Oscars stage back in February and served Chris Rock with a slap across the face for making a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith, even his fellow peers denounced his actions and said they were appalled by the altercation.

Netflix had reportedly halted production on several projects backed by Will, with others on social media calling for the father-of-three to be “canceled” for his public outburst. Well, one man who appears to have been on Will’s side through it all is Antoine, who stressed that the release of his movie shouldn’t be tied to “one bad moment.”

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“Of course I wanted people to see the film. My conversation was always, ‘Isn’t 400 years of slavery, of brutality, more important than one bad moment?’” he told Vanity Fair as he described Will as “the nicest person I’ve ever met.” Antoine also shed light on the fact that there are countless names in Hollywood with bad reputations who have continued to excel by receiving awards for their work, so the idea of canceling Will — or the movie — was out of the question.