For his first film in two years, and his first since his famous Oscar smack, Will Smith looked at the big picture to reconnect with his audience. The star attended a screening session on Friday night. Bad boys ride or die in Los Angeles.
Incognito in the theater, and hidden behind an FFP2 mask, Will Smith attended the film with the audience, laughing at each scene. At the end of the session, when the audience seemed to have enjoyed it, the star told them: “I’m glad you liked it.”
The audience, surprised by the actor’s presence, congratulated him on the fourth installment of the franchise before asking him for selfies. “It’s a ritual I have when a movie comes out. “I go to theaters a lot to see the reactions,” he said on Instagram.
Released last Friday in the United States, Bad boys ride or die has defied expectations and is expected to have a great start at the US box office, grossing around $53 million according to early projections.
The previous part of the franchise, directed like this by the Belgian duo Adil & Bilall, had already grossed more than 426 million euros at the global box office in 2020, just before the pandemic.
Apologies and low profile.
Since the slap episode, which led to his exclusion from the Oscar ceremony for 10 years, Will Smith has repeatedly apologized and kept a low profile, while Chris Rock has increased the number of monologues in which he talks about the incident.
Since then, Will Smith has only appeared in one Apple production, Emancipation. Filmed before the Oscars and released secretly nine months after the incident, this moving film chronicles the escape of a slave through the swamps of Louisiana.
At that time, Will Smith said during an interview that he understood those who were not prepared to see him on screen again after the slap. “If someone is not ready, I will completely respect them and give them the freedom to never want to see me again.”
Source: BFM TV
