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When Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars back in March it sent shockwaves throughout Hollywood, prompting huge reactions from a number of celebrities—and one A-lister who did not come out well after commenting on the situation was Zoe Kravitz.

The Batman star faced an instant online backlash for her remarks about Smith in the days following the slap and was berated for her friendship with Jaden Smith, Will's son.

Now the 33-year-old has said she regrets wading into the slap discourse and admitted she is still "torn" over the whole thing.

"I'm torn about what to say right now, because I'm supposed to just talk about it; I have very complicated feelings around it," Kravitz said in an interview with WSJ. Magazine.

"I wish I had handled that differently. And that's okay."

At the time, Kravitz took to Instagram to condemn Smith for storming the stage at the Academy Awards and slapping Rock for a joke he made about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.

"Here's a picture of my dress at the award show where we are apparently assaulting people on stage now," Kravitz, 33, captioned one post.

In a second post, the star wrote: "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."

Smith fans reacted immediately and Twitter users began punishing Kravitz for getting involved and slammed her for once calling a then 14-year-old Jaden Smith "handsome" and "cool" at a movie premier.

Amid the backlash, Kravitz deleted the posts and is only now speaking publicly about the incident, admitting she feels it is a "scary time" to express yourself.

"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 said.

"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."

She said that the backlash she faced reminded her that she is an artist, and not everybody will always love you or what you do.

"I was reminded that I'm an artist. Being an artist is not about everybody loving you or everyone thinking you're hot," she said. "It's about expressing something that will hopefully spark a conversation or inspire people or make them feel seen."

She added: "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."

Kravitz's comments come just weeks after Smith himself finally publicly addressed the slap.

In late July, the King Richard star released an emotional apology video on YouTube where he reflected on the incident, the fallout and how he has been coping ever since.

"I've reached out to Chris and the message that came back is that he's not ready to talk," Smith admitted in the five-minute-long video.

Uncommon Knowledge

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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