| Will Smith Pursues "Happyness" For All Our Sakes - Page 3 |
Page 3 of 3  Smith showing off his better half, longtime wife Jada Pinkett Smith  Jaden Smith is starting his entertainment career even earlier than his famous dad  The Smith's are one of Hollywood's more talented (and attractive) families  Watch out for Smith in the action flick "I Am Legend" in late 2007 {mos_ri} WS: He’s an extremely sensitive child, like let me give you a sense of how his make-up is. It was Jada’s birthday a couple years ago and that’s a big thing for me. I like to go out, big surprise party, all of her friends and everything, I’m flying high school friends in, all of that stuff and all the kids in, we made a video, for her birthday. So the night before, Jaden comes in the room and he’s crying and he taps me. He’s like “I need to talk to you” so we go out and I say, “what’s wrong?” He said, “Why are you making me lie to Mommy?” and I said, “Well, what do you mean?” He said, “Mommy asked me what were we doing tomorrow and I had to tell her a lie.” And I was like, “Right…well, no, it’s a surprise. We’re setting up a surprise for Mommy, so what we’re trying to do is we’re just trying to make her not know because the less she knows, the bigger the surprise is”, and he said, “Yeah, but that’s a lie, right?” And I said, “Ah, wow, no, it’s kind of like that.” And he said, “Daddy, my stomach hurts and I can’t sleep. I don’t want to lie to my Mommy.” And I was like, “Ohh. Okay, okay, what do you want to do?” He said, “Can we wake her up? I have to tell her cause I’m getting sick.” And I was like, “Wow!” How can you argue with that? He went in and told his Ma everything [impersonating crying son] “And then there’s friends from your high school and they’re coming…and they’re staying at the Sheraton, we saw them earlier” (lots of laughter) But he’s so deeply connected to human emotion. The style of direction that Gabriele used is he would just explain it to Jaden. We didn’t give him line readings. He would just explain it. Jaden said, “Why would I cry over this Captain America?” and Gabriele said, “Well, that’s the only toy you have.” And he said, “Well, why doesn’t my Daddy buy me more?” And he said, “Well, your Daddy can’t afford to buy you more.” “My Daddy can’t afford to buy me one more toy?” “No, he can’t.” “Well, why don’t we ask the bus driver to please stop and we go get that one?” He said, “Well, because if you’re late for the shelter, you can’t get in, and you’ll have to sleep outside again.” And he looked up at me and said, “Wow, that’s kind of sad, Daddy.” I said, “Yeah, it is, that’s the kind of situation that we’re in right now,” and he took a moment and thought about it and he said, “Okay, you can roll.” And he just understands, he just gets it. Q: Did Jaden come up with any of his own jokes and how did it feel knowing that with just one word he could steal the scene from you? WS: I know. (Laughs) There was probably about a year, maybe when he was 6, where he thought he was going to be a comedian and that’s what he wanted to do. He got the box set of “The Fresh Prince” so he wanted to tell jokes, and so he learned about 10 or 15 jokes and we used a couple of them in the movies, and those are all his. Q: You actually did the Rubik’s Cube on Oprah. What are you, an alien or something? WS: (Laughs) No, it’s a series of algorithms that anyone can learn. It took me… we flew in these two kids, the US Champ and the California State Champ, and they spent probably 12 hours with me teaching the series of algorithms and then maybe 30 hours practicing before I could do it by myself. Q: Can you talk about the Glide Memorial Church scene and what that experience was like? Reverend Cecil Williams was very open with us and welcomed us in, and all of the people in those scenes are actual people who stay at Glide. When you’re around people like Chris Gardner, Reverend Cecil Williams, people who have committed their lives to other people, you just feel like you aren’t doing nothing with your life. Just the spirit—and that’s always amazing to me for people who can survive on spirit, people who can survive on an idea. My mother and father came from a two-parent household, our electricity would get cut off and our gas would get cut off every once in a while but for the most part, I always felt like my worst fall was back to my parents house. The idea of homeless, I think about that idea... and Reverend Cecil Williams was explaining that homelessness is hereditary and what happens is most people, someone in your family at some point bought a home, so for generations, everyone will have some place to stay in a worst case scenario, and to be so disenfranchised and so disconnected that you have to sleep outside, you know what I mean, that is a huge problem and it’s an emotional issue and let’s just hope there’s people a lot smarter than me working on it. Q: You used the phrase “audacity of hope”… where did that phrase come from and what do you mean by it? WS: Who did I hear say that? Oh, yeah, that was Barack Obama. See, I have a three repeat clause. If somebody has a cool phrase, it’s three repeat. The first time I’ll say, “Well, you know, Barack Obama said, "The audacity of hope" and then the second time I repeat it, I’ll say, “Well, someone said ‘the audacity of hope’” and then the third time I say, “Like I always say, ‘the audacity of hope.’" [It's] the idea that you believe something with no facts and figures to support it, and actually if you look at the facts and figures there’s absolutely no reason for you to think the thing is going to happen that you believe. The audacity of hope, the idea that you’re going to be so arrogant or you’re going to be so disillusioned, or you’re going to be so something, so audacious that you are going to believe while you’re sleeping on a bathroom floor that you’re going to own a stockbrokerage firm. It takes real audacity to hope and I’m connected so much to this film and the spirit of this film because that is the fiber of this country. I think that it is a good time for us to remember why this country and how this country was designed, the reason that this country was put together. You know "We the people, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide the common defense,... promote the general welfare, secure the blessings of liberty on ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America." There are serious poetic ideas in the promise of what this country is suppose to be and I believe it all starts with the audacity of hope. Q: Do you have your own moments of "audacity of hope" in your career? WS: It feels weird for me to talk about my audacity of hope in the framework of Chris Gardner’s life; I’d have to say no I’ve never had any hopes so audacious as Chris Gardner. I’ve had situations where there’s no reason to believe that things are going to turn out the way that they’re going to turn out. When Jada and I got together, the period in our lives, there’s no reason for us to have been successful in our relationship. There were a whole lot of obstacles lined up for us not to make it. And, to me even on that small level, we always say that divorce can’t be an option. Because if you allow divorce to be an option there’s absolutely one day that you’ll check that box. So, it’s audacious to remove it as an option. It just isn’t an option, that’s not one of the choices that we have no matter what happens and that type of audacity is what it takes to make things be successful. Q: How does it feel to be in the Oscar race at this time of year? WS: You know, that period between the nominations and the show is the best series of parties on the face of the earth. (Laughter) I mean it is every night, different cities. You’re part of this wonderful elite group and it’s a beautiful time. It’s sort of bittersweet when you get to the show, because it makes the transition from a celebration to a competition, and I’ve never been an awards guy. I mean it’s fun. I tell my wife all the time, I’m more of a mall guy. When I walk into the mall on Saturday afternoon, if they don’t shut it down, then I feel like I’m slipping. That to me, that’s how I judge my work, and that’s how I judge the quality of my material is by having to shut the King of Prussia mall down outside of Philly on Christmas. Q: Are you working on "I am Legend," and if so, what is the difference between "I am Legend" and "The Omega Man?" WS: Yes I am, and there are huge differences, too many for me to speak about now.
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