(CNN) Will Smith returned to the awards ceremony in person for the first time since he slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars last year.
Smith, along with his “Emancipation” director Antoine Fuqua, accepted the Beacon Award at the African American Film Critics Association Awards on Wednesday.
After Fuqua spoke and thanked the cast and crew, he passed the microphone to Smith.
“‘Emancipation’ was the most individually difficult film of my entire career,” said Smith. “It’s really difficult to transport a modern spirit to this era. It’s hard to imagine that level of inhumanity.”
Smith plays an enslaved man named Peter in the AppleTV+ movie and described how he filmed a scene in which another actor spat at him at will during a take.
“It was the second day of shooting and 110 degrees,” he said. “I was in a scene with one of the white actors, and we had our lines, and the actor decided to go ad lib. So let’s do the scene. I did my text. He did his text. And then he libbed and spat right on my chest. If I had pearls on I would definitely have clutched them. I was going to say “Antoineeeeee” but I stopped and realized that Peter couldn’t have called that Director.”
Smith went on to describe the scene.
“We’ll take two. i make my line He makes his line and spits right in my chest again. I was grateful to really hear it,” Smith said. “And then I hear a voice in the distance and Antoine says, ‘Hey, let’s take a shot without the spit .’ And in that moment, I knew God was real.”
Smith didn’t attend the NAACP Image Awards last weekend, where he won the Best Actor award for his performance in the film, but he expressed his gratitude on social media for the recognition.