Watch Will Smith apologize to Chris Rock for Oscars slap in emotional video: ‘My behavior was unacceptable’

Will Smith has addressed the controversy surrounding the incident in which he slapped Chris Rock at the Academy Awards in March, issuing an apology to the comedian and his family in a YouTube video released Friday.

In the clip, Smith speaks candidly about the incident, and provides answers to a number of questions that arose in the days and weeks following the Oscars. Among them was why he didn’t apologize to the comedian during his acceptance speech for his role as Richard Williams in King Richard — an award he received shortly after he stormed the Dolby Theatre stage and slapped Rock for joking about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, who suffers from alopecia.

» READ MORE: Chris Rock’s joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair loss was cruel. Will wasn’t having it.

“I was fogged out by that point. It’s all fuzzy,” Smith said. “I’ve reached out to Chris, and the message that came back is that he’s not ready to talk. And when he is, he will reach out.”

The actor again apologized to Rock, saying that “my behavior was unacceptable.” This is the first apology Smith has made on video. He previously released a statement the day after the incident in which he said “I was out of line and I was wrong.”

Smith further explained his state of mind in the video, saying that he responded to Rock’s joke about his wife’s hair by slapping him because of “my history with Chris.” He added that his wife did not direct him to do anything about Rock’s joke.

“It’s like, you know, I made a choice on my own, from my own experiences, from my history with Chris,” Smith said. “Jada had nothing to do with it. I’m sorry, babe. I want to say sorry to my kids and my family for the heat that I brought on all of us.”

Smith also issued an apology to Rock’s mother, Rose, who spoke with South Carolina’s WIS-TV following the Oscars slap. In that interview, she said that “when Will slapped Chris, he slapped all of us.”

“That was one of the things about that moment. I just didn’t realize, and, you know, I wasn’t thinking, but how many people got hurt in that moment,” Smith said. The West Philadelphia native added that he wanted to apologize to the rest of Rock’s family — specifically to close friend Tony Rock, who is Rock’s brother.

“Tony Rock was my man, and this is probably irreparable,” Smith said.

In addition to Rock and his family, Smith also apologized to his fellow Oscar nominees. Smith slapped Rock just minutes before the award for best documentary was presented to fellow Philadelphia native Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson for Summer of Soul.

» READ MORE: Questlove wins best documentary feature Oscar for ‘Summer of Soul’

“To all my fellow nominees, you know, this is a community, it’s like I won because you voted for me. And it really breaks my heart to have stolen and tarnished your moment,” Smith said. He added that he “can see still Questlove’s eyes,” and that “I’m sorry really isn’t sufficient.”

Rock himself spoke about the incident during a standup set in New Jersey earlier this week, joking that “anyone who says words hurt has never been punched in the face,” Us Weekly reports. Rock added that he wasn’t a “victim.”

“I don’t go to the hospital for a paper cut,” Rock said.

Smith, meanwhile, ended his video with a promise to fans that “we’ll be able to be friends again.”

“I promise you, I am deeply devoted and committed to putting light and love and joy into the world,” he said.