Many artists have been accused of making antisemitic comments over the years. The rapper Kanye West was the recent one to have caused an uproar through his racist and antisemitic comments. But there are also artists who were mistaken to have made controversies due to misinterpretations. And Will Smith experienced it once, a long time back.
Kanye West faced a backlash from the industry and a ban from social media sites for the hate comments he made. Whereas Mel Gibbson was also accused by actress Winona Ryder of making antisemitic comments. But what Will Smith had said about the Nazi leader Hitler and its interpretation had left the actor “incensed and infuriated”.
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What Did Will Smith Really Say About Hitler?
The incident occurred long back in 2007 when Will Smith referred to Hitler in one of his interviews. The ‘King Richard’ actor gave an interview with a Scottish newspaper, Daily Record. “Even Hitler didn’t wake up going, ‘Let me do the most evil thing I can do today.’ I think he woke up in the morning and using a twisted, backward logic, he set out to do what he thought was ‘good,’” went on Smith’s remark on Hitler.
The trouble started as many websites had allegedly mentioned that the actor considers Hitler to be a good person. But that was not what Will Smith had said. The statement he made was to support the interviewer’s remark that, “Remarkably, Will believes everyone is basically good.” Though the misinterpretation had caused some chaos, the actor was faster to give a suitable response.
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Smith Clarifies His Words
‘The Pursuit Of Happyness’ actor was quick to clear his name out of the controversy. “It is an awful and disgusting lie. It speaks to the dangerous power of an ignorant person with a pen. I am incensed and infuriated to have to respond to such a ludicrous misinterpretation. Adolf Hitler was a vile, heinous, vicious killer responsible for one of the greatest acts of evil committed on this planet,” he had responded later.
The Anti-Defamation League was happy with the actor’s act of clarifying the comment. The then ADL National Director, Abraham H. Foxman, according to People had said, “This is why all celebrities bear a special responsibility to weigh their words carefully, and an obligation to speak out against racism and bigotry whenever even a whiff of it appears, as Will Smith has done in this instance.” This statement still remains valid.
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