Will Smith Makes Surprise Coachella Appearance 2 Years After Oscars Slap

The actor took his first step toward an attempted comeback, joining J Balvin on stage for an unexpected duet. A little more than two years after his infamous “Oscars slap,” Will Smith took his first step toward an attempted comeback this weekend with a surprise appearance at the Coachella music festival. Smith took the stage during Colombian superstar J Balvin’s Sunday set to perform his 1997 smash, “Men in Black,” from the movie of the same name. And just as his character, Agent J, did in the film, the actor and musician wore a black suit, tie and sunglasses. Widely-circulated footage of the unexpected duet shows Smith and J Balvin dancing in front of a projected backdrop of alien heads, flanked by a troupe of dancers dressed as agents and green extraterrestrials.

After J Balvin was playfully yanked off stage by dancers, Smith concluded his performance by holding up a “neuralyzer,” a magic tool used by “Men in Black” characters to erase people’s memories. The starry audience included Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, who shared clips of the performance to her Instagram Stories.

Smith has kept a low public profile after igniting a media firestorm at the 2022 Academy Awards, during which he struck comedian Chris Rock live on stage. That year’s Oscars had been expected to be a career high point for Smith, who won Best Actor shortly after the incident for his performance in the film “King Richard.” His private life has fallen under intense scrutiny as of late, too, after Pinkett Smith revealed last fall that she and her husband had been separated since 2016 despite maintaining the appearance of a committed couple.