During a recent interview promoting his new film, I am Legend, Will Smith expanded on a comment he had made about his belief that the human mind is inherently good, by saying:
Even Hitler didn’t wake up going, ‘let me do the most evil thing I can do today.’ I think he woke up in the morning and using a twisted, backwards logic, he set out to do what he thought was ‘good.’
Anyone with a modicum of common sense would not think that he was condoning Hitler’s actions or beliefs in this statement, but merely attempting to explain how someone could choose to commit diabolically evil acts in the belief that they are doing good work. Perhaps Will could have chosen his words more carefully and/or spoken about dictators in general, but I think his intention and meaning was clear.
As a result of that comment, there have been calls to boycott Smith’s films. He responded to those threats with the following statement:
It speaks to the dangerous power of an ignorant person with a pen. I am incensed and infuriated to have to respond to such ludicrous misinterpretation. Adolf Hitler was a vile, heinous vicious killer responsible for one of the greatest acts of evil committed on this planet.
Well said.
I’m not saying that Smith is perfect though, after all he is mates with Tom Cruise…
Sources: Info - Pics