| Will Smith Pursues "Happyness" For All Our Sakes |
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 Will Smith with his son, Jaden, and wife Jada Pinkett Smith at the L.A. premiere of "The Pursuit of Happyness"   Will and Jaden Smith stick together in "The Pursuit of Happyness"  Smith at the Museum of the Moving Image, which held a "Salute To Will Smith" in Dec. 2006 {mos_ri} In the film, Gardner is candidly depicted as a bright and talented young man who’s marginally employed as a salesman. Struggling to make ends meet, Gardner finds himself and his five-year-old son evicted from their San Francisco home with nowhere to go. When Gardner lands an internship at a prestigious stock brokerage firm, he and his son endure many hardships, including living in shelters, public restrooms, bus stations and wherever they can find refuge for the night, in the pursuit of his dream of a better life for the two of them. How Chris Gardner chooses to raise his son alone against all odds after becoming a single father is one of the film's most inspirational messages. He makes a stand that his son must stay with him no matter what; he believes life will get better for them and it does. He persistently pursues a better paying job using every sales skill he knows. And Smith, who has often played more lighthearted, slick-sailing characters, handily takes on this character who really has to rise above his struggle to survive. Smith does it well and has garnered his second Best Actor Oscar nom as a result (he got his first for "Ali"). Q: So your son refuses to do press? Will Smith: (Laughs) Yeah, he’s… We did Oprah the other day; my son Jaden and my daughter Willow were both on the show. Willow was on the show because she wasn’t about to let Jaden be on “Oprah” and she wasn’t. I looked at them and Jaden was so unaffected. He wants to act and play video games, so the whole idea of press... He's completely unaffected by it. I was watching the two of them and I said, “I got Johnny Depp and Paris Hilton” [laughs]. Q: Did you think about the conflicts caused when [father and daughter] Ryan and Tatum O’Neal did “Paper Moon”--she won the Oscar and it ruined their relationship? WS: [Laughs] Now, listen, that kid, I told him probably about eight weeks into shooting--and he’s such a natural and he’s nailing it moment after moment--I told him, “it’s a good thing that you’re my son” because I’ve been leaning into his close-ups and all kinds of stuff, and he was stealing scene after scene on me. But it’s a beautiful thing. Q: Was it assumed he would play your son from when you first started on the movie? WS: Oh, no, not at all. Jada and I were laying in the bed one night and he’s between us, and we’re both reading the script, and he’s like “Tell me the story, Daddy!” so I’m telling him the story and he said, “PSSSH! I can do that!” And I said, “Oh, really?” and he said, “Yeah!” We shoot shorts around the house and that kind of stuff, so he’s familiar with the process. Jada took him next week in to start auditions, and he’s [with] 100 kids, then 50 kids, then 20 kids, and he was still there; then we got down to about 10, and I said, “I might need to pay attention a little bit” and I went and Gabriele Mucchino, the director, just fell in love with him. [Smith does the impression] “I must have your baby, Will, I must have your baby!” And I said, “Hold on, let me get clear about what you’re asking me. [laughs]. Q: How did you meet Chris Gardner and how did this project get started? WS: Well, it started with the piece "20/20" did on Chris. This has been lightning-quick in Hollywood years to go from an idea to a completed project. It’s been just about two years and thats just unheard of. So after the "20/20" piece, producers Mark Clayman, Todd Black and Jason Blumenthal called us in and we loved the piece. The imagery of black fatherhood, that’s not the image that we have in America, so it was something that was a powerful idea. I mean the "20/20" piece, to their credit, was done brilliantly and it told the story. Q: Since your life is so unlike Chris’s, what could you relate to most as far as his life is concerned? WS: Without getting too esoteric about it, I love and am connected to the idea that your will and your desire create what your future is, that the white man doesn’t create your future, your circumstances don’t create your future, none of that creates your future. Your desire to be who you want to be and your commitment to that is what creates your future. To me, that’s the idea that this country is [based on]: Life, Liberty and The PURSUIT of Happiness. Not life, liberty and happiness. Life, liberty and a spot you can pursue; Chris Gardner believed that, accepted it and was committed to it in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. That’s something that I’ve always believed that there’s this bizarre, I guess naivety for the “audacity of hope” that I’ve been committed to, and I’ve always felt it, and I’ve always believed it. Chris and I share that belief in the power of our desires. |