Speaking on Nihal Arthanayake's BBC Radio 5 Live show, Smith responded: "I think initially it took a while to get used to that, that it's not a personal thing about me.
"Obviously social media can be very loud. When people started directing it at Gray, that was when I was like, 'ok, we're doing our jobs here, people are calling out this behaviour, this behaviour is unacceptable'.
"And that's why we do it, for people to be able to recognise that there are people like Gray out there," the actor continued. "It may be a father, it may be an ex-boyfriend, it may be a brother, it may be a friend. It just gave people that platform to recognise those behaviours."