Will Smith is sharing how “Emancipation” revitalized his religious beliefs.The 2022 historical epic, helmed by Antoine Fuqua, starred Smith as real-life former slave “Whipped Peter.” The film was inspired by the 1863 photos of “Whipped Peter” taken during a Union Army medical examination and showed the scars on Peter’s back; the photograph, first published in Harper’s Weekly, added to the growing public opposition to slavery.For the film, Smith wore real metal chains to evoke the reality that Peter dealt with.“I went too far in ‘Emancipation.’ Just bringing it up, I start to get teary,” Smith said during Kevin Hart’s Peacock talk show “Hart to Heart.” “I wanted to feel the degradation of slavery, and I went too far in.
That level of human brutality…I had the chains on my neck and we were working.
I wanted the real weight of them.
I wanted real chains.
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