Will Smith and ‘Emancipation’ Director Defend Releasing the Slave Film Now

One of the biggest wild cards of this year’s awards season is Emancipation, the biographical slavery epic starring Will Smith. It’s also the contender with the most baggage, thanks to its star and controversial subject material.

The AppleTV+ film, in select theaters now and streaming on Dec. 9, comes only nine months following this past year’s Academy Awards, where Smith infamously slapped presenter Chris Rock onstage after the comedian made a joke about his wife, actress Jada Pinkett Smith. The timing of the film, in relation to the Oscars slap, has raised some eyebrows. Additionally, folks on social media have expressed fatigue about the film, given the prevalence of slave narratives in Hollywood and the question of whether or not these portrayals are exploitative.

At a press conference for Emancipation on Saturday, the movie’s director Antoine Fuqua explained why he felt the need to depict this gruesome time period on film.

Read more at The Daily Beast.