Zoë Kravitz reflects on her criticism of Will Smith’s slap at the Oscars

Zoë Kravitz reflects on the criticism she received for her call Will Smith‘s hit at the Academy Awards last March. The actor took to the stage and slapped Chris Rock after the comedian made a joke about Smith’s wife. Jada Pinkett-Smithand her bald head.

Two days after the shocking incident, Kravitz received backlash for a series of Instagram posts that she has since deleted. “Here’s a picture of my dress at the show we seem to be attacking people on stage now,” she captioned the first photo of her March ceremony look. The second explained, “And here’s a picture of my dress at the after-party after the awards show — where we seem to be yelling swear words and now attacking people on stage.” Kravitz also replied, “No,” when a fan asked in the comments, whether she supports Smith’s defense of his wife.

The 25-year-old actress opened up about her initial comments in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal. The backlash made her reflect on the impact of words written or said on social media.

“It’s a scary time to have an opinion or say the wrong thing or make controversial art or statements or thoughts or anything,” she explained. “It’s mostly scary because art is about conversation. That’s what I think it should always be about. The Internet is the opposite of conversation. The internet is about people posting things and not recording anything.”

The Batman star said the incident reminded her of her role as an artist, which means expressing “something that hopefully sparks a conversation or inspires people or makes them feel like they’re being seen.”

She continued, “I think I’m at a point right now where I don’t want to express myself through a caption or a tweet. I want to express myself through art.”

Kravitz said she’s “tongued” about what to say about the matter now, as she still has “very complicated feelings.” She added: “I wish I had handled this differently. And that’s okay.”

Smith’s slap led to months of repercussions for the actor, who won his first career Oscar for Best Actor that night. The “King Richard” star resigned from the Academy and was banned from attending Oscar events in person or virtually for ten years.

Last month, the 54-year-old publicly apologized again on social media for hitting the comedian on national television. In the video shared on Instagram, Smith said: “I reached out to Chris and the message that came back is that he is not ready to speak and when he is he will get in touch. So I’m going to tell you, Chris, I apologize to you. My behavior was unacceptable and I’m here whenever you’re ready to talk.”

Oscar producer Willpacker commended Smith for being “so transparent” in his apology and wishes both men the best. “I would just say I love these two brothers and am drawing for them,” he told Entertainment Tonight on Aug. 9.

The 48-year-old hopes people will eventually move on and appreciate the hard work his team put in at this year’s Oscars.

“People always talk about it, but I hope over time people will realize that it was an energetic, diverse and historic Oscars,” he said. “There’s a lot of energy in it. I’m very proud of it.”