Berlin – Will Smith’s slap in the face at the Oscars still resonates – at the Academy, among those affected by the incident, on the Internet and also among the people who play a role in the environment of the newly crowned Oscar winner. Richard Williams, the father of tennis sisters Serena and Venus Williams, has now spoken out. Smith portrayed the coach in the biopic, for which he won the Best Actor trophy on Sunday.
80-year-old Richard Williams has now let his son Chavoita LeSane say that he condemns violence. “We don’t know all the details of what happened. But we don’t condone anyone hitting another unless it’s in self-defense,” LeSane told NBC News. His father was just as surprised by the incident as everyone else. Since the famous tennis coach suffered a stroke in 2016, LeSane has served as his public spokesman.
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Scene from “King Richard”: Will Smith as the father of the Williams sisters
Hollywood star Will Smith, who punched comedian Chris Rock on stage at the Oscars after he had spoken out to his wife Jada Pinkett Smith, has since apologized for his behavior. In his acceptance speech on Sunday, he seemed to want to justify the scandal. “Richard Williams was a fierce defender of his family,” he said.
The drama film “King Richard” by Reinaldo Marcus Green, which was released in local cinemas in February, tells the story of Richard Williams and how he coached his two daughters, Venus and Serena Williams. The 80-year-old used to take tennis lessons himself and decided his future daughters would become professionals after watching Romanian Virginia Ruzici play on TV. He wrote an 85-page plan and began teaching Venus and Serena when they were four and a half years old.
Williams later said he felt he set his daughters off on the pro career path too soon. An age of six would probably have been more appropriate. In 1995, Williams pulled his daughters from a tennis academy and coached them himself. Within a few years, they were winning their first Grand Slam tournaments.