Will Smith still struggling to fix his public image after Oscars’ assault

Will Smith still struggling to fix his public image after Oscars’ assault

Will Smith has long been trying to revamp his public image nearly four years after his infamous Oscars’ slap-gate incident with Chris Rock.

In a report published by Radar Online, a source revealed that the King Richard actor is trying to harness his rage by taking therapy sessions for years but Hollywood isn’t forgiving him for his 2022 assault during the Academy Awards.

“The anger has been pushed down, not mastered,” said an industry insider while speaking of his anger management therapy.

The source told the outlet that Will “has done every program, every retreat, but you can feel the tension still there – it surfaces whenever he talks about what happened”.

Interestingly, Will’s troubles increased after violinist Brian King Joseph recently filed a sexual‑harassment lawsuit against him. However, the Bad Boys actor’s attorney called the claims “false, baseless, and reckless”.

Nonethless, this case had made his comeback complicated in the entertainment industry.

One production source spilled to the same outlet, “Will sees the performance of Bad Boys: Ride or Die as validation that he still connects with audiences. In his mind, an I Am Legend sequel is the project that can cement that support and re-establish him as a serious box office force.”

But another tipster mentioned that Michael B. Jordan’s movie commitments “have slowed everything to a crawl” increasing Will’s agitation.

In the last few years, the source close to the actor pointed out that Will has tried “meditation, therapy, and anger management work, but sometimes that intensity still leaks out”.

“It’s like he can’t quite forgive himself, and also realised that what he’s trying to fix isn’t just his career – it’s himself, and his lingering anger,” added an insider.