Will Smith breaks down in tears explaining 'bottled up rage' behind Oscars slap in first TV interview since incident

Will Smith has spoken out about the infamous Oscars slap in his first TV interview since getting onto the stage at the academy awards and hitting Chris Rock.

Speaking on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, the Oscar winning actor reflected on the moment from the awards ceremony everyone ended up talking about.

He said: "At the end of the day I just, I lost it. I guess what I would say is you just never know what somebody's going through.

"In the audience right now you're sitting next to strangers. Somebody's mother died last week, somebody's child is sick, somebody's just lost their job, somebody's found out their spouse cheated."

"Not that that justifies my behaviour at all, you're asking what did I learn. We've just got to be nice to each other man, it's hard. I guess the thing that was most painful for me is I took my heart and make it hard for other people."

"I understood the idea when they say 'hurt people hurt people'."

Noah chipped in to say that just after the slap one of his friends said they thought they 'saw the real Will Smith' in that moment, but the host thought it was entirely the opposite and the slap hadn't revealed the actor's true character.

Smith delved further into the reasons behind the infamous slap, explaining it was 'not who I want to be'.

He said: "It was a lot of things, it was the little boy that watched his father beat up his mother. All of that just bubbled up in that moment.

"That's not who I want to be, you've known me for a long time so you know me personally so you know, but y'all might not know. That's not who I want to be, man."