Will Smith: Iron Will
The ups included cutting a record at age 17, playing London, Japan and Moscow, becoming a millionaire by age 18, buying luxury cars and buckets of jewelry. As for some of the other downs, he recalls, "I've been in really ugly situations, hostage situations, on the road with my music. You know, you get out to Albany, Georgia and the promoter didn't make his money, so he doesn't want to pay you. I mean, during the first part of my music career, we signed our first deal with a gangster who later tried to shoot us. He was a penny-ante gangster, but the bullets were for real. As we were driving away, he shot at the car five or six times. It was pretty scary, but you don't think about that while it's happening, you're just trying to get away. He would have killed us if he could actually shoot."
No one tried shooting at Smith during his "Fresh Prince" days, but, from what I've heard, some creative people around him might have fantasized it. "I work hard, so I want everyone around me to work hard," he says when I bring up his reputation for being tough on people. "If you're not willing to work hard, let someone else do it. It's not really about being tough on writers or directors or anyone else. I'm really tough on lazy people, people who aren't willing to work. I'd rather be with someone who does a horrible job but gives 110 percent than with someone that does a good job and gives 60 percent."
So far, we've been pretty blasé about how Smith got to be a television and movie star from a record career. Hollywood's a boneyard littered with music stars who couldn't work their mojo on any screen, small or big. Mow exactly does he think he did it? Why, for instance, did Independence Day blast his career into orbit when industry wisdom had it that the far more experienced Bill Pullman would go mondo? He postulates, "I loved Bill Pullman's performance, but I got the great lines and situations. Maybe a lot of it has to do with television training, though. Watch Jim Carrey, Tom Hanks, Robin Williams or Eddie Murphy, who all come from comedy television where you learn to maximize every one hundredth of a second. These guys know that when you do a half hour of television, probably nine minutes of it arc yours and that's it.
"From the first season of "Fresh Prince' on, I got [hold of] every TV show and every movie [those four stars] made, and I watched them over and over to see the differences between the two mediums. I saw that-- outside of Jim Carrey--everything in movies is just a touch smaller, a touch slower, because the camera does more of the work in a film. I sat down, and still do, with an incredible management team to discuss the theory of a TV star versus a movie star, the concept of celebrity versus stardom versus a real actor. I knew I was going 10 want to make the transition 10 movies, so I started off really small--just to get the feel of a movie set and the film world-- Where the Day Takes You.
"Now, I want to be in that place that Robin Williams is--say, where they'll offer him roles that are similar to Mork from Ork, but they'all also offer him Mrs. Doubtfire and Awakenings. Right now, I'm watching a lot of Nicolas Cage, because he's in that place, too. He can do Raising Arizona and Leaving Las Vegas. I'm also studying everything Cary Grant ever did. I want to position myself in a place where people will offer me anything."
Anything? I ask him what we have yet to see from him on camera. "I want to play somebody crazy," he says. "What's good about me playing someone crazy is that I want to play him completely lovable, the kind of guy who's nice, fun, makes you laugh, to whom you give the keys to your house. I think there's a killer inside of me. And I think there's a lover inside of me, and a superhero, and a broken man."
This list prompts an inevitable question: docs Smith consider himself a good actor? "I'm above average in talent, but where I think I excel is psychotic drive," he says, "All I need is for somebody to say I can't do something and this crazy switch inside me makes me attack whatever I'm doing. Psychotic drive is where i excel over people that are probably more naturally gifted."
Psychotic or otherwise, Smith's drive has him in the catbird seat. How is the view from there with regard to his next may be-monster smash, Men in Black? "I haven't seen it assembled," he tells me, "but I think it's going to be great. In fact, make my quote. 'It's the best movie ever made!' Until you see it done, you never gel a sense of the whole movie, especially in science fiction, where they're going to add a lot of effects. But I think Rick Bilker has designed some of the most beautiful and disgusting alien creatures you'll ever see."
Another summer alien flick? Does Smith worry it will be compared to this past summer's big alien flick? "It's scary," he confesses. "I'm thinking that after every movie I do, it'll be: 'It's good, but it's no Independence Day.' I'm taking things one movie, one album, one project at a time. What people are seeing in me is potential. Potential has to be harnessed, then realized. Independence Day was a great step. I'm hoping Men In Black will be another huge leap."
Huge leaps have been Smith's stock-in-trade for some time now. He reflects, "I have been going up for the past 10 years. I haven't really had any valleys in my career, I'm just on a constant incline. I'm sure I've got a down coming eventually. I just hope it's no time soon."
Smith admits that another Independence Day has been "kicked around, but I don't know if that's something Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich are considering." He sounds equally iffy about the prospects of reteaming with Martin Lawrence for a sequel to Bad Boys. "I'm developing a romantic comedy," he reveals. "Miss Jada and I would have a ball on camera, but we don't want to mix business with pleasure right now.
"As for my life right now," he concludes, "the picture I always see in my mind is of that incredible game Michael Jordan had where he had 63 points. He just turned to the TV cameras and shrugged, like, 'Hey, I'm just throwing 'em up there and they're going in." That's how I feel. I'd love to say that I'm brilliant, that I'm the second coming. The real answer is that I'm blessed. I throw 'em up from wherever I am and they just keep going in." He lets out a triumphant laugh, adding, "How cool is that?"
_________________________
Stephen Rebello interviewed Teri Hatcher for the October issue of Movieline.
Subscribe to the new Movieline on YouTube
