By Amerie Samuels // People // EEW Magazine Online

Is it true that Will Smith’s apology video released last week only serves to deepen the cracks in his already fractured image?

“There’s no gun seen pointed at his head,” noted Variety’s Andrew Wallenstein, “But there might as well have been one offscreen considering the production comes across as forced as a hostage video.”

The 5-minute-and-44-second monologue by the 53-year-old Oscar-winning actor shows him taking accountability for striking 57-year-old comedian Chris Rock and disrespecting colleagues, family members and viewers. He also emphasized that his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith, had nothing to do with his violent outburst.

Yet Wallenstein argues that there is a “cardinal sin Smith commits” displayed in the video’s opening text.

“What’s most striking at the outset of the video is the decision to not have Smith verbally begin the video himself. Instead, the opening image displays the following text: ‘It’s been a minute. Over the last few months, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and personal work. You asked a lot of fair questions that I wanted to take some time to answer.’”

Wallenstein says this would have been “more effective” spoken than written.

Perhaps.

“Let that man live!” says Sheena Thomas of Baltimore, an EEW Magazine reader and longtime Will Smith fan. “He confessed his faults, reached out to the man he offended, and asked for forgiveness. What more does the public want?”

That question cannot be answered simply, since the public comprises people from various backgrounds that bring varying perspectives to the table.

The problem is this: when an individual has a fan base as broad as Smith’s, appeasing everyone is impossible, though offending almost everyone is easy.

Wallenstein, who is among those eager to point out Smith’s sins, was unimpressed by the apology video, criticizing its “cherrypicked selection of questions from unnamed inquisitors to which he responds,” adding, “It’s such an obvious way of pushing forward a distinct set of talking points that prevents any sense of sincerity from coming across.”

Wallenstein may have a valid point, since being calculated, for some, means being insincere.

“Will Smith’s long-standing good guy image won him millions of fans who trusted him to be the guy his image portrayed,” publicist Cleo Ellis of the Edelman Group tells EEW Magazine. “By failing to keep up the image, the trust is lost, and that is something that cannot be regained through a video despite how well produced, mapped out, or sincere it tries to be.”

Though Ellis agrees with Wallenstein that the footage Smith shared is not ideal, she disagrees that it has “done any further damage.”

EEW Magazine reader Asia Wells weighs in from a Christian perspective and says, “We ought to forgive others as we want to be forgiven. That’s what Jesus would do.”

Though Wells is correct about Christianity and forgiveness, Smith’s circle of influence is not confined to the faith community. Therefore, redemption may not be so easily won.

We each can agree that Smith needs a strong redemption arc to win lost fans, but Wallenstein thinks his latest attempt amounts to “unwitting self-sabotage.”

How unfortunate.

Now let us pray: Jesus, be a publicist. In Your name. Amen.

Watch the much scrutinized apology below.