After making a questionable comment on Adolph Hitler in The Daily Record, a Scottish newspaper and later apologizing for it, actor Will Smith and his apology have been accepted by the Anti-Defamation League.
“He took immediate steps to clarify his words and unequivocally condemn Hitler as an evil person,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director in a statement.
This fiasco all began when Smith was quoted as saying that 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.'”
Once the quotes were published it soon made headlines on several celebrity gossip Web sites, infuriating many in the Jewish community.
According to Smith, his words were taken out of context and a representative for actor/rapper was quick to issue an apology stating: “It is an awful and disgusting lie. 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. Adolph Hitler was a vile, heinous, vicious killer responsible for one of the greatest acts of evil committed on this planet.”
The incident follows the release of Will Smith’s latest movie I Am Legend, which made $76.5 million in its opening weekend, making it the highest grossing December movie ever.