‘Only God can help a man endure’: Will Smith talks role as ‘whipped Peter’ in film ‘Emancipation’
December 4, 2022 | California
Months after the slap heard around the world, award-winning actor Will Smith is back in the public eye promoting his new film, “Emancipation,” a role that prompted him to draw closer to God.
Smith appeared on “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” Monday to promote the film which will be released in theaters and Apple+ this weekend.
In the film, Smith plays the role of a formerly enslaved man named Peter who made history after a photo of his wounded back showing the years of physical lashings circulated nationwide during the Civil War.
Peter escaped from slavery in Louisiana and volunteered for the Union Army. After seeing the Army medics he was photographed and the “keloidal whip marks” on his back are now ingrained in history. The image was published in Harper’s Weekly in 1863 and captioned, “Whipped Peter.”
“This film centers on faith,” Smith told Noah, adding that Peter seemed to have “the power of faith to be able to endure anything. This character … what he had to endure and what he had to survive, only God could make a man, when you look at those marks on his back, only God could make that possible.”
Smith said, according to what he was told, at one point in his life Peter was whipped so severely he went into a coma, and that’s when he reportedly met God. After Peter came out of the coma, “he believed in a way that he had never believed before.”… (Excerpt from The Christian Post)