Will Smith has a history of being protective over his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
More than two decades before the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air alum, 54, told Chris Rock to “keep my wife’s name out your f—king mouth” at the 2022 Oscars, actor Tommy Davidson claimed that he and Smith had a “run-in” due Davidson and Pinkett Smith’s kissing scene in the 1998 film Woo.
“He came into the trailer, and I was sitting down,” Davidson, 59, recalled on the Wednesday, October 11, episode of Shannon Sharpe’s “Club Shay Shay” podcast of the incident. “He’s standing over me, and he’s like, ‘I don’t appreciate that, man. I don’t appreciate that.’ And I’m like, ‘What you talking about?’ I always know to play it off,” the comedian recalled.
The comedian continued: “I’m like, ‘What’s going on man? Tell me what’s happening.’ And since he was standing and I was sitting, I was a real nice fella. That’s about physics.”
Davidson said that while he didn’t know what was making Smith so angry, he wanted to get to the bottom of it. “Finally I just said, ‘This is a small place and people are here, we should talk about it, me and you, outside, ‘cause it looks like you need to get something off your chest,’” he explained. For her part, Pinkett Smith — who was also in the room — was adamant that they didn’t speak privately.
In fact, Davidson didn’t find out the reason behind Smith’s confrontation until more than 20 years later. Before referencing the incident in his 2020 memoir, Living in Color: What’s Funny About Me, Davidson had to get permission first. “I found out about literature that you can’t put something in a book about somebody unless they sign off,” he said.
Davidson sent the quotes from the book to a friend of Smith’s who not only approved the passages but explained that Smith had been upset about Davidson and Pinkett Smith’s kissing scene in Woo.
While the onscreen kiss was a planned part of the script, Davidson recalled producers asked that they perform the scene ahead of schedule, before the two actors had a chance to rehearse it. Davidson refused at first, but after producers told him that Pinkett Smith was OK with it, he agreed.
“When emotions is high, common sense is at an all-time low,” Davidson said of Smith’s reaction to the unplanned kiss.
The Smiths, who tied the knot in 1997 — one year before Woo’s release — once again found their marriage taking center stage decades later.
Smith — who shares son Jaden, 25, and daughter Willow, with Pinkett Smith, and son Trey, 30, whom he shares with ex Sheree Zampino — came under fire after slapping Rock across the face at the 2022 Oscars after the comedian, 58, made a joke about Pinkett Smith’s shaved head. (The Red Table Talk host, for her part, has been open about her battle with alopecia, which causes hair loss.)
The incident not only led to backlash against Smith, who was banned from the Academy following the drama, but also Pinkett Smith — who was blamed by some for causing the issue in the first place.
“It was ridiculous in how far it went,” Pinkett Smith told People in an interview published on Thursday, October 12, in regard to the rumors that the slap was somehow her fault. “But I also understood at the same time, considering the false narrative that I had cheated on Will or I was, like, some adulteress.”
Earlier this week, Pinkett Smith also revealed that she and Smith have been separated since 2016 but are working on their marriage.
