The life of Will Smith

He won his first Oscar for best actor... minutes after punching Chris Rock. This is the story of Will Smith.

Transcript

00:00Road to power is in taking responsibility.

00:24Your heart, your life, your happiness is your responsibility and your responsibility alone.

00:36One of the major things that my father instilled was education.

00:42My father was very hard on expanding your mind every day, learning, and he was in the

00:49military so it was about discipline.

01:20When I first started writing rhymes in 19, uh, yeah, probably 80 is when I really first

01:27started to sit down and write rhymes and I was writing raps in my book and I had my four

01:31letter words in there, you know, I was writing all my stuff and my grandmother found my rap

01:35book and she wrote a letter in the back of my rap book, she said, Dear Willard, that's

01:41my grandmother called me Willard, she said, Dear Willard, truly intelligent people do

01:44not have to use words like this to express themselves.

02:09When I started making the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, I was just hoping to have a nice

02:13car one day.

02:39You know, this is the first movie that I've completed a trilogy, so of the films I've

02:54done, playing a character three times, for me, it feels like home.

03:09Well, they teach me every day that there's, there's, there's no goal other than completely

03:22and fully living as who you are, you know, and that was such a new idea, like they, they

03:28are two of the most powerful, authentic people, like, you know, and, and, you know, I guess

03:35Jada and I were able to give them a thing that, you know, we desired growing up, where

03:41they are, they are just comfortable and confident to be them without a concern of how other

03:47people feel about it.

04:05Muhammad Ali has played David to Goliath, after Goliath, after Goliath, and still he

04:28rises, and I think that's a great message for, for everyone.

04:35I will say to, to President Mandela, the, the inspiration that you have given to, to

04:49me and to, to people around the world, you can, you can rest assured that your, your

04:56work, your commitment will live on forever.

05:03You know, in, in my mind, I'm, I'm a, a warrior, and I'm teaching my son how to hunt, and how,

05:26how else would I teach my son how to hunt, other than bring him with me, and we're in

05:32an interview, and this is what I do, and this is the business I work in, to me, it's, it's,

05:37I can't imagine what the other option is.

05:56I remember the day I retired.

06:01I literally said to Jada, that's it, I retire, I retire from trying to make you happy.

06:09I need you to go make yourself happy, and just prove to me that it's even possible.

06:26This movie calls for singing, dancing, rapping, um, acting, uh, with drama, comedy, special

06:52effects, it's like everything that I've trained myself to do over the last 30 years being

06:57an entertainer, I got to do it in, in this movie, it's one of the most enjoyable experiences

07:03of my career.

07:22We started talking about, we came into this false romantic concept that somehow when we

07:35got married that we would become one, and what we realized is that we were two completely

07:42separate people on two completely separate individual journeys, and that we were choosing

07:51to walk our separate journeys together.