Zoë Kravitz is finally addressing her remarks about Will Smith after his infamous slap at the Oscars.
But in the aftermath of the incident fans and celebrities did not hesitate to post their opinions, including Zoë.
Zoë Kravitz Finally Speaks Out After Past, Controversial Remarks About Jaden Smith And Dissing Will Smith
Next to a now-deleted picture of herself on the Oscars red carpet, Zoë firstly wrote: “here’s a picture of my dress at the award show where we are apparently assaulting people on stage now.”
She went on to share a second photo from the afterparty, captioned: “and here is a picture of my dress at the party after the award show -where we are apparently screaming profanities and assaulting people on stage now.”
In addition, Zoë went on to directly respond “nope” to an Instagram user who asked, “You don’t support him defending his wife?”
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However, Zoë quickly found herself facing a massive wave of criticism herself when fans questioned why she was publicly condemning Will when she had several unaddressed controversies of her own, including her close friendship with designer Alexander Wang — who has been accused of sexual harassment and assault by multiple people — along with her past suggestive comments about a then-underage Jaden Smith, son of Will.
In a 2013 interview with V magazine, Zoë — who was 24 at the time — made several suggestive remarks about Jaden, then 14. “There were moments that I was hanging out with Jaden and thinking, I can’t believe you’re 14, I have to check myself, like what I say to you,” she said.
“He has so much personality and so much swag, he is so much cooler than I am. And he’s so handsome, I was always like, When you’re older, you know, we’ll hang out… Nope, that’s inappropriate, you’re 14,” she said.
Zoë’s past comments quickly went viral as fans questioned the remarks. “[You] tellin’ me Zoe Kravitz was tryna flirt with a 14-year-old Jaden s\Smith yet tried to diss will smith on Instagram,” read a tweet that received over 130,000 likes at the time. Zoë avoided making any public comment and decided to instead quietly delete both of her Instagram posts.
But now, about five months later, Zoë has finally addressed the massive amount of backlash she faced in a new interview with the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday this past week.
Speaking about her public shade toward Will, Zoë expressed some regret and revealed that she wishes she’d “handled that differently.”
“I’m torn about what to say right now because I’m supposed to just talk about it,” she said. “I have very complicated feelings around it. I wish I had handled that differently. And that’s okay.”
“It’s a scary time to have an opinion or to say the wrong thing or to make controversial art or statements or thoughts or anything,” she went on. “It’s mostly scary because art is about conversation. That should, in my opinion, always be the point. The internet is the opposite of conversation. The internet is people putting things out and not taking anything in.”
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Briefly touching on how she grappled with the severe criticism, Zoë revealed she was “reminded” that she’s an artist, before divulging that she no longer wants to “express” herself through “a caption or a tweet.”
“I was reminded that I’m an artist,” she said. “Being an artist is not about everybody loving you or everyone thinking you’re hot. It’s about expressing something that will hopefully spark a conversation or inspire people or make them feel seen. I think I’m in a place right now where I don’t want to express myself through a caption or a tweet. I want to express myself through art.”
But folks are still not happy and are now calling Zoë out once again for making no acknowledgment of the problematic comments about Jaden, while also suggesting that the backlash was solely in response to her criticism of Will.
And the drama continues…