Over the years, Marlon Wayans has candidly discussed therapy’s importance, especially within the Black community.
The comedian reiterated those similar sentiments to his friend Will Smith following the star’s controversial Oscars moment last month. During the ceremony, which occurred on March 27, Smith slapped Chris Rock for joking about Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head.
Although Smith went on to win the Best Actor award for his role in “King Richard” that night, the 53-year-old received significant backlash. Aside from some public scrutiny, the fallout included several of Smith’s upcoming projects being placed on hold to being banned from the Oscars for ten years. Since then, Smith has kept a relatively low profile.
On April 29, during an interview with “Big Boy TV,” Wayans disclosed his reaction to seeing Smith’s incident with Rock. The “White Chicks” star jokingly said on mark 22:10 that he felt “someone put something” in his weed. “I thought it was fake. I thought someone put something in my weed. I put my weed down. Either I’m high, or Will is high.”
Wayans went on to add that Smith’s incident could have possibly stemmed from the actor’s 30 years of being an exemplary image in the public eye. He said, “I think that pressure of 30 years of being excellent that’s hard to do. That man, he just snapped, you know what I mean? You got to check on your strong friends.”
Wayans continued, “That brother was under a lot. Something was wrong for him to snap and forget about what he’s been working toward for 30 years. Thirty years of perfection and that brother, he snapped.”
The 49-year-old wrapped up the discussion by mentioning that he suggested that Smith get therapy following the slap for the underlying issues the actor might be privately facing.
He told Big Boy, “I’m not forgiving it or excusing it, but I hit him up. I was like, ‘Hey brother, you may want to go and get you about three hours of therapy, like fifteen hours this week you need to sit down with a therapist and have a long talk. Something is going on with you.’ That wasn’t him.”
Wayans also stated that he brought up the idea of therapy because he doesn’t understand the type of pressure Smith was under for being the perfect role model because he has been given a pass his entire career.
“I don’t have that kind of pressure. He’s been Black excellence for thirty years. I’ve been Black alrightness. … People expect me to do dumb stuff, but him, nah, not Will.”
