[imagesource: Getty Images]

It has been nearly four months since Will Smith slapped Chris Rock on the Oscars stage over a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, and her shaved head as a result of her struggles with alopecia.

The actor was teased and roasted left, right, and centre, later resigning from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and being banned from attending the Oscars for the next 10 years.

Those blows must have been hard to take.

In light of all the bad press, there have even been rumours that the filming of the highly anticipated Bad Boys 4 movie with co-star Martin Lawrence would be stopped.

Marca clarified that it won’t be the case:

There hadn’t been much to tell about the plans for this sequeal other than the production stopped. However, Lawrence himself came out to dismiss any rumors about the film not moving forward.

He even hinted at the possibility of making more than one of these franchise movies in the future. This confirms Will Smith is definitely coming back to film the fourth installment.

Bad Boys for life.

Image: Bad Boys franchise

Another friend of Smith’s, Kevin Hart, also spoke about how Smith has been doing in the aftermath, per The Lost Angeles Times:

“Will is apologetic, you know, he’s in a better space, of course, than what he was after,” Hart said.

“People are human and as humans sometimes, we make mistakes. So it’s not about talking about the past, it’s about acknowledging the present and doing your best to move forward.”

Just like Smith’s wife who said in one of her Red Table Talk sessions that her “deepest hope is that these two intelligent, capable men have an opportunity to heal, talk this out and reconcile”, Hart also wants the two friends to make up:

“I can get only hope that the two of them find a way to find some solace in that and move past it. I just like good energy. I love to see people be the best,” Hart said.

“I still love him, I still love Chris, and, you know, you can’t judge a person by one thing. Ultimately, life goes on and people grow, so give him the opportunity to do so.”

Smith released his statement of apology a few days after the incident, denouncing all forms of violence as “poisonous and destructive” in the Instagram post, and calling his actions “unacceptable and inexcusable”.

Although, he said, “a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to bear”.

Rock hasn’t said much about the whole ordeal, but did reveal at a show of his in March that he was “still kind of processing what happened”.

Meanwhile, we haven’t really heard or seen much from Smith himself lately as he is likely keeping low-key until he’s ready to emerge into the spotlight again.

[sources:marca&latimes]