{"id":22059,"date":"2022-12-12T09:38:52","date_gmt":"2022-12-12T14:38:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=22059"},"modified":"2022-12-12T09:38:52","modified_gmt":"2022-12-12T14:38:52","slug":"will-smith-discusses-new-role-in-film-emancipation-and-faith-after-infamous-oscars-slap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2022\/12\/will-smith-discusses-new-role-in-film-emancipation-and-faith-after-infamous-oscars-slap.html","title":{"rendered":"Will Smith Discusses New Role in Film ‘Emancipation’ and Faith After Infamous Oscars Slap"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gage Skidmore\/Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Months after the slap heard worldwide, award-winning actor Will Smith is back in the public eye promoting his new film, \u201cEmancipation,\u201d a role that prompted him to draw closer to God.<\/p>\n

Smith appeared on\u00a0\u201cThe Daily Show with Trevor Noah\u201d<\/a>\u00a0Monday to promote the film, which was released in theaters and Apple+. In the movie, Smith plays the role of a formerly enslaved man named Peter, who made history after a\u00a0photo of his wounded back<\/a>\u00a0showing the years of physical lashings circulated nationwide during the Civil War.<\/p>\n

Peter escaped from slavery in Louisiana and volunteered for the Union Army. After seeing the Army medics, he was photographed, and the \u201ckeloidal whip marks\u201d on his back are now ingrained in history. The image was published in Harper\u2019s Weekly in 1863 and captioned, \u201cWhipped Peter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis film centers on faith,\u201d Smith told Noah, adding that Peter seemed to have \u201cthe power of faith to be able to endure anything. This character, what he had to endure and what he had to survive, only God could make a man, when you look at those marks on his back, only God could make that possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith said, according to what he was told, at one point in his life, Peter was whipped so severely he went into a coma, and that\u2019s when he reportedly met God. After Peter came out of the coma, \u201che believed in a way that he had never believed before.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe difference between faith and revelation … he walked in the world with a knowledge of the divine, a\u00a0 knowledge of God that is just something that I\u2019ve just desperately wanted to understand and explore,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

Smith, who was once a highly celebrated actor in Hollywood, fell from grace earlier this year after he slapped comedian Chris Rock across the face during a live broadcast of\u00a0the Oscars<\/a>. The slap came after Rock made a joke about Smith\u2019s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, who suffers from alopecia, an\u00a0autoimmune disease<\/a>\u00a0that causes bald patches on the scalp.<\/p>\n