The Angels
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Slavery, according to the writers, is one of the most difficult subjects to film, especially when you want historical accuracy, because the vast majority of slaves left little or no direct record of what they thought, felt, and believed. If Quentin Tarantino fantasized about this theme in ‘Django Unchained’, Antoine Fuqua bet to use it to redeem Will Smith in ‘Towards Freedom’, a vehicle tailored to an actor who went from being the most beloved in Hollywood to sinking into his own misfortune because of a violent outburst. The slap to Chris Rock in the middle of the last Oscar gala, when the comedian joked about Smith’s wife’s illness, made everyone turn their backs on him.
But eight months after that fateful gala (in which he won the Oscar for best actor for ‘The William Method’, although no one remembers it anymore) Will Smith reappeared in public surrounded by his family. It was on the red carpet for the presentation of the film, last Wednesday. His arrival was big, accompanied by his wife Jada Pinkett Smith and his three children (Trey, 30; Jaden, 24, and Willow, 22). The Smiths formalized so that they are a united front in the face of criticism. «He spent years looking for a character who would teach me the path of faith. Peter has shown me the level of atrocity that human beings are capable of. This film has impacted me emotionally and, as an artist, I thank the character for the lesson he received,” said the actor, using ambiguity after his press officer asked the journalists present not to ask him questions about the film. oscar night.
“When I decided to make this film, I thought it would spark a much-needed conversation in society. On a personal level, at this moment in my life, the tape is pure poetry”, admitted Smith, who left an open door in each response so that everything could be interpreted as “the path of salvation” that he is following after seeing how most of his companions cast him aside.
And it is that the actor spent a large part of the opening night fighting his personal situation and comparing it with that of his character. “I realized that this was not a movie about slavery; I discovered that it was a film about freedom, about emancipation. I had seen the photos of Peter and the scars on his back, but as I got into the role and experienced his suffering, his faith, his love for God, I understood that freedom is lived from within oneself», pointed out the interpreter, who during the red carpet and the subsequent meeting with various media, including ABC, did not stop mentioning God and launching messages full of spirituality.
another award performance
Despite being kicked out of the Film Academy, Smith could be nominated for an Oscar for best actor, a feat that would add morbidity to his strange professional situation. «Peter lives in my heart and any recognition belongs to him for everything he suffered. No one is saved from carrying his cross and, for me, this film has been an enormous spiritual transformation ». Smith’s return to the spotlight of the photographers has been preceded by a ‘mea culpa’ agreement with the program ‘The Daily Show’, where, through tears, he said about the incident with Chris Rock: “I unleashed a repressed rage for a long time. Like many injured people, I ended up doing damage. For his part, Antoine Fuqua, the director of ‘Towards Freedom’, which premieres Apple TV today, is clear about it and, for him, the problem is not Will Smith. “Today it seems that we are forgetting the past, which is dangerous. We must not be fooled by money and diamonds », he said, showing that he also handles the codes of double meaning.
Together they sign in the film a biography of Peter, a slave who became a symbol in the United States when a photo of the scars on his back circulated throughout the country during the Civil War. The picture was published in ‘Harper’s Weekly’ in 1863 under the headline ‘Whipped Peter’. “Some people think we were born when Barack Obama was president, but as I watched George Floyd die on the street, I got so mad I decided to tell this story. I wanted the emotional impact of this project to outweigh any controversy. My hope is that people see it and get carried away by Will’s great performance,” admitted Fuqua, who has built a character tailored to a Smith who is always used to being the hero. “I thought it was important that Will star in it so that the public could understand that in 1863 someone loved and admired like him would be a slave,” he lamented.
Will Smith reinvents himself by the hand of a slave after Chris Rock’s slap