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The slap, the drama, the ban, the drama, the self-reflection, the apology, the efforts to regain popularity.

Shame, Will Smith has been through a rollercoaster of emotion and he’s not done yet.

As you may well already know, the actor lost some major traction in the entertainment world after slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars.

The 53-year-old won the award for best actor for his role in King Richard that night, which should have seen his popularity soar to new heights if it wasn’t for that dreaded moment when he chose violence to defend his wife’s hair condition.

He was promptly banned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for 10 years and shunned from the spotlight, bar a few jokes with him as the brunt.

A new survey by Q Scores, a widely recognised quantifier of star power and appeal according to The Guardian, has shown that Smith’s popularity declined quite significantly after the slap:

Q Scores compile their data by polling some 1,800 US consumers about their feelings about celebrities, twice a year. Smith had long enjoyed high rankings, consistently placing in the Top 10 positively rated actors, alongside the likes of Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington.

But between the January and July 2022 polls, Smith’s score went from a 39 to a 24 – the number indicates the percentage of those surveyed who had both heard of Smith and counted him as one of their favourite personalities. Such a fall was described by Henry Schafer, executive vice president of Q Score as “a very significant and precipitous decline”.

Jada Pinkett Smith’s ratings were also significantly affected with her positive rating falling from 13 to six, and her negative score jumping from 29 to 44.

Rock’s scores remained fairly consistent, with positive at 20 and negative at 14. His awareness rating, however, grew from 66 to 84.

Will has been deeply remorseful about the whole drama, having publicly apologised in July to Rock and everyone else affected:

“There is no part of me that thinks that was the right way to behave in that moment,” Smith said in the video. “There’s no part of me that thinks that’s the optimal way to handle a feeling of disrespect or insults.”

The man is trying hard to get back on track, though, emerging once more on social media.

After his apology posts, he shared a video of a young gorilla irritating a much larger gorilla by poking it multiple times in the backside, likening it to his efforts to emerge from the shadows:

 

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His recent plea is a little less obvious but potentially dramatic enough to garner the attention he seems to want back so badly.

The Independent noted how he shared a new clip where he and his son Trey capture a “tarantula” they spotted walking around their Southern California home:

 

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Shame, give the guy your likes.

[sources:guardian&independent]