I was bullied by Will Smith – I get no joy from Oscars’ slap fallout but now he knows how it feels to be butt of a joke

AN actor who claims to have been bullied by Will Smith on the set of an Oscar-winning film has said he gets no pleasure from the star’s fall from grace – but at least now he knows how it feels to be the butt of the joke.

Paul Rodriguez, 68, worked with Smith on the set of the 2001 biopic Ali where he claims the once-beloved star bullied and humiliated him on a daily basis, making his life a “living hell.”

9

9

9

Rodriguez told The U.S. Sun in an interview last year how he believes Smith’s cruel treatment towars him led to him being maligned by much of the cast and crew and almost cut out of the movie entirely, derailing his then-burgeoning career in Hollywood.

But Smith’s own legacy in Tinsel Town would erupt in flames more than two decades later when he marched on stage at the Oscars in 2022 and slapped comedian Chris Rock across the face for making a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith.

Dubbed “The Slap Heard Around the World,” with the swinging of an open palm Smith was swatted from the upper echelons of Hollywood royalty and hung out to dry in the court of public opinion.

Almost overnight, various projects the Fresh Prince was working on were either axed, shelved, or indefinitely suspended. He was also later banned from attending the Academy Awards for the next decade.

However, almost a year on, Smith is slowly crawling his way back into the spotlight.

He issued a groveling public apology to Rock in a YouTube video last July – almost four months after slap-gate – but is apparently yet to apologize to the comic directly.

Rock, for his part, remained silent on the matter for months before finally addressing the scandal in a new Netflix special that aired on the streaming platform earlier this month.

Sources close to Smith told Entertainment Tonight that Rock’s latest gags have left him “embarrassed and hurt” and he wishes he would “let it go.”

Rodriguez, meanwhile, said while he feels a great deal of empathy for the situation Smith finds himself in, he hopes he now understands how he made him feel on the set of Ali.

“Look, I get no joy out of him going through this but maybe he’ll have a lot of compassion for what he put me through because it’s a horrible thing to be the butt of the joke,” said Rodriguez, ahead of this year’s Academy Awards.

“After he made me the butt of all his jokes and nasty remarks on Ali, people didn’t want to hang out with me no more, it was like the word got out and I had leprosy all of a sudden.

“That movie was meant to be one of the biggest and most wonderful breaks in my career but he made it a nightmare […] and it all went downhill from, there: I was dropped by my management company and I couldn’t get an agent worth a damn. 

“Even though everything he put me through, I feel sorry for Will Smith; the price he’s going to have to pay is almost bigger than the crime.

“He was one of the biggest stars in the world, and all this affection people had for him has turned into apathy, all for a moment of stupidity.

“It’s hard for me to find any kind of animosity towards him because I know the feeling of what he’s going through and if someone’s bound to this kind of ostracism you can have compassion, and I do.”

‘JADA THE REAL VILLAIN’

Rodriguez added that if last year’s Oscars was an earthquake then this year’s ceremony will serve as a firm aftershock for Smith, with more turbulence yet to endure.

Deeming Rock’s latest jokes to be only the tip of the iceberg, Rodriguez believes this year’s awards ceremony, airing March 12, will be laden with jabs and references to the infamous slap and possibly about Will and Jada’s relationship too.

“It’s pretty hard to erase this from the minds of everybody and they’re going to extract their pound of flesh,” he said.

“I think the ratings are gonna be higher, just in the expectation that somebody else is going to do something to become of history in a negative way […] but I’m sure the host and plenty of other people will be making jokes about Will throughout.

“I think it might be time for, after this [Oscars], to have a truce. There are only so [many] slap jokes you can make.

“I think he’s suffered enough and deserves redemption, but the real villain here is his wife, Jada.”

I think he’s suffered enough and deserves redemption, but the real villain here is his wife, Jada

Paul Rodriguez

Rodriquez said it’s his belief that Jada got off lightly despite “ordering the hit” on Chris.

He worked with both Will and Jada on Ali and said she was never warm, friendly, or in a good mood, “even back then.”

He explained: “I think what he did in a certain way, he thought standing up for his lady’s honor was going to be a gallant thing, but there wasn’t much honor to defend in my opinion.

“I think people watched that clip and realized the real villain wasn’t the hitman but the person that paid for the hit, you know?

“Because it seemed like he was enjoying the joke and all of a sudden she gave him a look and he got his marching orders.

“It seemed pretty clear it was an order – a paid hit – and he was doing nothing but executing the wishes of his old lady. 

“I just hope after this, he’s smart enough to listen and learn. I hope he’s able to break the hold [Jada] has on him and realize that what he did was wrong, really wrong.”

BULLYING CLAIMS

Rodriguez was cast in Ali – a blockbuster movie chronicling the life of the legendary boxer Muhammad Ali – as Dr. Ferdie Pacheco, his personal physician, and long-serving cornerman.

He revealed in an interview last year that the day he landed the role was among the happiest of his life.

He also said he was looking forward to the prospect of working with Smith again, having previously starred alongside him in the 1993 rom-com, Made in America.

“Back then he wasn’t the superstar he is now. We hung out quite a lot and everything had always been really friendly between us,” Rodriguez said.

“From time to time, I’d run into him in the studio when we were working on different projects and everything was terrific.

“So when I went to audition for Ali, after the fifth or sixth time I read for [the director] Michael Mann, I ran into him again. We stopped and chatted for a little while and I asked him to put in a good word for me.

“He told me, ‘I think he likes you, I think the part is yours already.'”

OSTRACIZED AND MALIGNED

When filming started in Chicago and Miami, Rodriguez – who was still star-struck by the A-listers he found himself working beside – said the atmosphere on set was wonderful and cordial.

But suddenly, as if a light switch had been flicked, his once-friendly relationship with Smith completely soured, which eventually led to him being ostracized and maligned by much of the cast and crew, he claims.

Rodriguez said he’s unsure if he did anything personally to offend Smith but pinpointed the beginning of the feud to an alleged incident that happened between Smith and the real Ferdie Pacheco.

“I was off that day so I didn’t see the commotion,” Rodriguez told The U.S. Sun. “But the real Ferdie Pacheco was on the set and apparently he was inebriated and went into Will’s dressing room and was complaining that his character should have a bigger part, and should be played by Danny Garcia instead of me.

“Things escalated and apparently Pacheco started calling Will the N-word. Police were called and he was escorted off the set – it was bad.

“Will never looked at me the same from that point onward.”

9

9

Read Related Also: Disgraced former footy star is charged over violent Christmas Eve car chase with gun shots fired

9

Rodriguez returned to set the day after the alleged incident, unaware of what had transpired between Smith and the real Dr. Pacheco the night before. He arrived to shoot a scene with Smith where he was tasked with lacing up his gloves.

As Rodriguez remembers it, he asked everyone how they were, including Smith, who he claims flat-out ignored him. Then suddenly the star allegedly looked at him, jerked his arms away, and barked at him, “you don’t know what the f**k you’re doing.”

“Am I’m like, ‘Will, I’m just lacing up gloves, the camera isn’t even on me right now.’ I think my lines were something like, ‘stick and move Champ, stick and move.’

“And he just looked at me again and said, ‘you don’t know what you’re doing,’ and everything just went drastically downhill from there.”

‘I WAS ABSOLUTELY BULLIED’

In the days and weeks that followed, Rodriguez claims he was routinely mocked and bullied by Smith.

Such disparaging behavior would reportedly include Smith ignoring his greetings and questions, in addition to “threatening” him and turning his fellow cast and crewmembers against him.

For six hours every morning, Rodriguez would sit in the make-up chair to cosmetically transform into Dr. Pacheco, often next to Smith, who would apparently refuse to say even a word to him.

“[I didn’t even get] the most basic cordiality, you know, not even ‘Good morning. How are you? How’s it going?’ when we all sat on a makeup chair.

“I mean, I was there for six hours every day, but there was never any bantering … we used to talk but now it was as if somebody smelled bad and I was tainted. 

“And it tainted the other actors. All of a sudden nobody wanted to hang out with me. Michael Mann even started hollering me out in front of all the other actors in group scenes for things I wasn’t even doing.”

‘THREATENING BEHAVIOR’

Rodriguez recalled one alleged alarming encounter with Smith while they were filming in Africa that he says has continued to bother him for the last 20 years.

The entire cast of Ali was invited for dinner at Nelson Mandela’s home, but his castmates, most of whom had distanced themselves from him, reportedly neglected to inform Rodriguez.

He said he was sitting alone in his hotel room when he got a knock at the door from Mykelti Williamson, who played boxing promoter Don King in the film, who informed him about the invite.

When he eventually arrived at the Mandela home, Rodriguez claims Smith was visibly upset and annoyed that he’d turned up.

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air alum later came up to Rodriguez and issued him a bizarre “threat,” he alleges.

“I remember I was getting some food from the buffet in that beautiful house when he came up to me and said, ‘You need to be very careful. You’re a long way from anyone who likes you. Because you’re in Africa, there are no Mexicans here.'”

A stunned Rodriguez said he was unsure what to make of Smith’s alleged remarks and asked him to elaborate but he declined to do so.

“If that’s not a threat, I don’t know what is,” Rodriguez reflected, adding at the time he believed Smith’s remarks were racially charged.

BREAKING POINT

At this point, claiming the bullying had become so unbearable, Rodriguez said he threatened to walk away from the production but was ultimately talked down by John Voight, who starred as the famed journalist and sportscaster Howard Cosell.

Voight, as Rodriguez remembers, told him that Smith was a method actor who was under an immense amount of pressure and suggested that relations between the pair would soon improve.

But more than a month into filming, Rodriguez says nothing changed so he made an impassioned plea to Smith to bury whatever hatched he had been holding onto.

In an effort to distinguish himself from the real Dr. Pacheco, Rodriguez said he removed his prosthetics and turned to Smith one day, saying, “‘Look, if you’re unsatisfied with me, I’m not gonna sit here and take this abuse. It’s me Paul Rodriguez, man. I’m not Pacheco, I’d never use the word he used, that’s not who I am. I’m playing this guy.’

“I asked him why he was choosing to hurt me but I couldn’t get through. He just told me to ‘shut up and stand there’ [in silence].”

Rodriguez, hoping Voight’s predictions would eventually ring true, said he suffered through the rest of the production which eventually wrapped after six months of filming.

CAREER IN TATTERS

When the movie was eventually released on Christmas Day, 2001, Rodriguez was heartbroken and embarrassed to find that all of his lines had been cut, and his portrayal of Pacheco was reduced to essentially that of an extra.

He found it devastating when friends and family members would call him, saying they’d seen the movie but barely spotted him in it – despite being a featured name in the credits.

Rodriguez believes Smith, and the way he treated him and turned other members of the cast against him, is to blame for his axing from the film.

“I did everything within my power to try to shine in that movie, including taking voice lessons to sound like Pacheco, and for all that I got ostracized and humiliated.

“This seriously injured my career, because Hollywood would’ve looked at how I was cut out and thought, ‘Wow this Rodriguez was so bad they cut him from the [movie]’, but that wasn’t the case.

“It was a disaster and I have to overcome that,” he added. “Smith was amazing in that role, he was nominated for an Oscar – which I think he should’ve won – and the movie was incredible.

“But all I was left with was just a sickening feeling like I was some kind of sacrificial lamb. What was meant to be a dream role was made into a nightmare.”

9

9

9

Rodriguez accused Smith of sabotaging his role in the film, something he said was very important to him and that he’d worked incredibly hard to get.

The actor, who is currently working on his own independent movie, said after the disaster of Ali he felt as though he’d been “relegated” from Hollywood.

“I’ve had some successes, but for the most part I feel as though I was cast aside after that,” he said. “I feel like I’ll never get a chance for a shot at the big time.

“I feel like Ali himself, he was put in prison during his prime years and you just don’t get them back. Hollywood isn’t clamoring for a 67-year-old leading man, so it’s my burden to share.”

‘I FORGIVE HIM’

Although more than 20 years have passed since the filming of Ali, Rodriguez says he still hasn’t received an apology from Smith – though he doesn’t expect one to be forthcoming.

“I don’t think he will,” he told The U.S. Sun on Thursday.

“I think in his mind I’m not important enough and he probably can’t see that he damaged me in any way.

“But if he ever did, I would accept that apology wholeheartedly without any kind of hesitation.

“I don’t want anything from him, there’s nothing we can do to repair it. We can’t turn back time and it wouldn’t do me any good anyway.

“The best thing I can understand is that whatever troubles or pain he put me through by making me the butt of all the jokes in Africa, whatever that was will be nothing compared to what he’s going through right now. 

“I’m not here to party or feel vindicated. I went through my own personal pain [because of him] but it wasn’t world shame or anything like that. 

“I pity him and I feel sorry for him.”

The 2023 Academy Awards will air on ABC this Sunday at 8pm ET.

This year’s host Jimmy Kimmel has threatened to “beat the s**t” out of anyone who tries to emulate Smith’s antics.