美国国家公共电台 NPR--Will Smith opens up to Trevor Noah about the 'rage' behind his Oscar slap

Will Smith opens up to Trevor Noah about the 'rage' behind his Oscar slap

Transcript¹

A teary Will Smith gave his first major interview since he slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars to Trevor Noah of the Daily Show. Smith described how he lost it over Rock's joke about his wife's hair.

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

Will Smith has largely stayed out of the public eye since last spring after he slapped Chris Rock during the Academy Awards following a joke that Rock delivered about his wife, Jada. Smith published a video apology addressed to Rock over the summer. And this week, the actor did an interview with Trevor Noah on "The Daily Show."

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE DAILY SHOW WITH TREVOR NOAH")

WILL SMITH: That's not who I want to be, man. I'm trying to - you know, I'm trying to...

TREVOR NOAH: Yeah. I also think that's not who you are. I'll be honest with you. I think it's not who you are.

MART?NEZ: NPR TV critic Eric Deggans is joining us now to talk about this. Eric, it happened eight months ago. So why now for Will?

ERIC DEGGANS, BYLINE²: Well, you know, Will Smith has got a movie rolling out. So coincidence? I don't know. He has a new movie called "Emancipation³" that's coming to theaters and also to Apple TV+. And it's a creatively ambitious movie. It's about an enslaved man who's running away from hunters trying to recapture him. And I think there's a sense that if he doesn't get out there and talk a little bit in a friendly forum⁴ about what happened at the Oscars, then the movie won't have as much of a chance in Hollywood's sort of awards shows that are coming up. There's a hope that this movie will do well. And so he has to get out there and sort of diffuse⁵ things.

And also, it's a movie that I think they're going to have a challenge getting people to watch it. Some people don't want to watch movies about enslaved people because the subject is so brutal⁶. So if he can get out there and talk about it a little bit and maybe improve his image with some people who might have been turned off by what he did, you know, then maybe the movie will do better.

MART?NEZ: And how friendly of a forum did "The Daily Show" turn out to be for Will Smith?

DEGGANS: I think it was a particularly friendly forum. What we saw was that host Trevor Noah seemed to downplay the seriousness of what Will Smith had done. And there was a moment where Trevor Noah even made fun of the fact that some people said that Will Smith should have been arrested for what he did, when, in fact, what Will Smith did was walk onto a stage and physically⁷ assault somebody for telling a joke that he didn't like. And I was surprised to see Trevor Noah take that tack⁸ because Trevor is a stand-up comic himself. And if he was performing somewhere and someone walked up onstage and slapped him over a joke, if that person wasn't a celebrity⁹, they'd probably be in jail. So it was an odd thing to see.

But Trevor sort of went along with this idea of providing a friendly forum for Will Smith to sort of talk about what happened. And then in the end, Trevor Noah almost forgave him, in a way, for the audience and said, you know, you're still a great guy and hugged him at the end of the interview.

MART?NEZ: And I noticed that Noah kept referring to Chris Rock and Will Smith as two of his close personal friends.

DEGGANS: Yeah. And I think that was sort of designed as a way to sort of say, you know, I know both these guys. I'm not necessarily picking a side. But in the substance of the interview, there wasn't much discussion of Chris Rock, who was actually the victim of this situation. And that's something that I found very striking. You know, the issue that I've had with some of what Will Smith's done to address this is that so much of this has been about his reactions and how he feels and what he's going through. And very little space has been devoted¹⁰ to this idea that Chris Rock was a victim of whatever he was going through and is still struggling with it. And we didn't see much talk about that in this interview, and that was also disappointing.

MART?NEZ: And would it be the biggest irony¹¹ of ironies¹² if he is nominated for "Emancipation" but can't go to the award ceremony?

DEGGANS: I got to say, I would be amazed if that actually happened. I think the academy - the Oscar Academy is very aware of how bad it would look to nominate this movie or to set up a situation where, you know, Will Smith might attend the Oscars or be asked to attend the Oscars or be expected to attend the Oscars. I don't think that's going to happen.

MART?NEZ: NPR TV critic Eric Deggans. Eric, thanks.

DEGGANS: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF DEVONWHO'S "LYON")

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 emancipation   

n.（从束缚、支配下）解放

参考例句：

• We must arouse them to fight for their own emancipation. 我们必须唤起他们为其自身的解放而斗争。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They rejoiced over their own emancipation. 他们为自己的解放感到欢欣鼓舞。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。

5 diffuse   

v.扩散；传播；adj.冗长的；四散的，弥漫的

参考例句：

• Direct light is better for reading than diffuse light.直射光比漫射光更有利于阅读。
• His talk was so diffuse that I missed his point.他的谈话漫无边际，我抓不住他的要点。

6 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

7 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

8 tack   

n.大头钉；假缝，粗缝

参考例句：

• He is hammering a tack into the wall to hang a picture.他正往墙上钉一枚平头钉用来挂画。
• We are going to tack the map on the wall.我们打算把这张地图钉在墙上。

9 celebrity   

n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望

参考例句：

• Tom found himself something of a celebrity. 汤姆意识到自己已小有名气了。
• He haunted famous men, hoping to get celebrity for himself. 他常和名人在一起, 希望借此使自己获得名气。

10 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

11 irony   

n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄

参考例句：

• She said to him with slight irony.她略带嘲讽地对他说。
• In her voice we could sense a certain tinge of irony.从她的声音里我们可以感到某种讥讽的意味。

12 ironies   

n.反语( irony的名词复数 )；冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事；嘲弄

参考例句：

• It was one of life's little ironies. 那是生活中的一个小小的嘲弄。
• History has many ironies. 历史有许多具有讽刺意味的事。 来自《简明英汉词典》