THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS
An Interview with Will Smith
By Wilson Morales

December 11, 2006

No Black actor has had more success on every level other than Will Smith when you talk about his music, TV and film career. Smith has worked up the ladder in three fields and managed to maintain a loyal following ever since. He also knows how to choose his projects. He’s done independent films (back in his early days), sci-fi films (Independence Day, I, Robot) and action films (Bad Boys I and II), along with numerous other genre flicks. He’s has music success winning Grammys and other accolades. A few years, he was nominated for Best Actor for his chilling portrayal of heavyweight boxer Muhammed Ali in “Ali”. He’s also happily married and a devoted of three. He takes much pride on being a good father and now he’s bringing his fatherhood to the big screen in the form of biopic and introducing one of his sons, Jaden, to the world. In his latest film, “The Pursuit of Happyness”, Smith plays real-life struggling but bright salesman, Chris Gardner, who has fallen on hard times, and must survive in the streets with his five year old son after his wife leaves him and he’s evicted from his apartment with no place to go. Early buzz has it that his portrayal here will garner another Oscar nomination. In speaking with blackfilm.com, Smith talks about bring his son Jaden into the film world, meeting and playing Chris Gardner, and his thoughts on the Oscar race.

So your son refuses to do press?

Will Smith: (laugh) yeah, he’s… we did Oprah the other day and 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 kind of looked at them and Jaden is so unaffected. He wants to act and play video games, so the whole idea of press, he is completely unaffected by it. I was watching the two of them and I said, “I got Johnny Depp and Paris Hilton” (laughs)

Did you think of when Ryan and Tatum O’Neal did “Paper Moon” and she won the Oscar and it ruined their relationship?

Smith: (laughs) Now, listen, that kid, I told him probably about eight weeks into shootin’ and he’s such a natural and he’s nailing 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 stealin’ scene after scene on me. But it’s a beautiful thing.

Was it assumed that he would play your son from when you first started on the movie?

Smith: Oh, no, not at all. Jada and I were layin’ 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 tellin’ 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. So Jada took him next week in to start audition’, and he’s [with] 100 kids, then 50 kids, then 20 kids, he was still there, got down to about 10, and I said, “I might need to start pay attention a little bit” and I went and Gabriele Mucchino the director, he just fell in love with him. [does 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)

How did you meet Chris Gardner and is that how this started?

Smith: Well, it started with the 20/20 piece. 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 that is unheard of. So it was a 20/20 piece and Mark Clayman (?) and Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, they 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.

Since your life is so unlike Chris’, what could you relate to most as far as his life is concerned?

Smith: Without getting too esoteric about it, I love and connected to the idea that your will and your desire creates what your future is. That the white man don’t create your future, and your circumstances don’t create your future, and 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 designed upon. Life, liberty and the PURSUIT of happiness. Not life, liberty and happiness. Life, liberty and a spot you can pursue it, and Chris Gardner believed it, accepted it and committed to it, in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds and that’s something 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.

After seeing the 20/20 piece, did you go after it yourself to get to Chris because you were so inspired?

Smith: No, it was almost 3 days later after seeing the 20/20 piece, a couple people were a little quicker on the draw then we were, and they sent it to us. I don’t know if you’ve seen the piece, but it is absolutely brilliant. The individual image that gets you is Chris Gardner walks the steps and he actually goes back to the subway bathroom that he stayed in with his son. That was the image that made me want to make this movie and subsequently, Chris took me and walked me through those steps. There’s a moment that actors look for when you get it. Like trying to find a character, you’re in a dark room just feeling around and every once in a while, you grab something and you’re like “ah, yeah, that’s it” It’s dark, you can’t see anything, you’re just wandering around. When I walked into that bathroom with Chris and stood there, that was… I got it. I understood. And then after that to actually shoot the scene—I believe it was a rebuild of the set—but to actually shoot the scene with my real son on my lap is no acting necessary.

Can you talk about the racial issues of the time and how it wasn’t shown in the film?

Smith: It goes back to the idea. There’s a movie called “What the BLEEP” I don’t know if you’re familiar with it. “What the BLEEP” and there’s an idea that’s almost a quantum physics idea that Chris and I both connect to that something is only there if you acknowledge it’s there. Something only has power over you if you acknowledge that it has power over you, and Chris specifically said that sure, he knows he was in America, he knows that there was probably racism, but he never paid attention to any of that. He found good people, he connected to good people, people who weren’t washed themselves away from him, but the idea that… He felt that if he allowed himself to say that there’s racism and somebody’s trying to keep me down because I’m black that it actually weakens him in acknowledging the obstacle.

Your first hit song was “Parents Just Don’t Understand” now that you’re a parent, would you be able to understand your kid?

Smith: Kids Don’t Know Nothing! (laughs) That’s my new record, “Kids Don’t Know Nothing” (laughter) No, it was actually a beautiful experience being with my son, because I did more learning than he did. My entire approach to acting is forever changed after working with Jaden. The way that he works, and I happen to be reading “Zen and the Art of Archery” during the time that I was working on the film, and there’s an idea in there that that type of human perfection, that type of achievement, that type of connection between yourself and your target or your goal, that you discover it in a childlike manner, that you discover that at play. And he said to me one time. We were on the set and he looked up, we had done a few takes, and Gabriele kept giving me notes, and Jaden always thought that was funny when we would do a take and the director would come give me a note and not say a thing to him, so he took that as him winning. There was a particular scene where Gabriele was talking to me, talking to me, and Jaden just looked up and he says, “You just do the same thing every time, Daddy.” And I was a little offended, but the idea that he was saying innately what didn’t connect to him was “how can you give the same performance every take? I’m saying different stuff, I’m doing different stuff. And if we’re supposed to be living in these moments than how come you’re not reacting to the new stuff that’s happening?” So I started watching him and what I realized is in the scene, I’m a producer, I’m Will, I’m a movie star, I’m all of that stuff in the scene, and Jaden is just the character. And it’s just a block that I’ve had in my career for a lot of years and this is the first time that I’m feeling myself free of that. It’s to hell with continuity, to hell with whether we make the day, or how much the day cost, and we lose the set and all of that, I’m finding that space where I’m committing to the truth of the character and it’s such a liberating, artistic space. I’ve been there two other times in my career with “Ali” and with “Six Degrees of Separation” where just completely liberated to live and be free and to create. I’m just extremely excited about it and thankful to my son for showing me the way.

Was there ever thought of completing the trifecta and having Jada in there as well?

Smith: Well, you know, Jada kind of prefers not to work with me. (laughs) cause I’m like “You know baby the last take, you did this, why don’t you try it a little different this time?” and she’d be like “Boy, you worry about you, let me worry about me.” We worked on “Ali” together so… we’re trying to keep a happy home, so we avoid that.

Do you think this is the best thing you’ve ever done, and when you were reading the “Zen” book was it partially because Chris manages to keep so much inside him and doesn’t explode when he’s forced to do errands?

Smith: You know, I don’t know if the two things were connected. I didn’t intellectualize why that book drew me during that time, but I’m sure there was something about the piece and the comfort that he finds. As an actor, when you make these movies, you actually get to walk someone’s footsteps. You actually get a rare glimpse and a thorough glimpse—that’s almost an oxymoron—you actually get to look into someone’s life and see what moves would have made differently than you would have made. You always ask yourself “Where would your breaking point have been? Am I as much man as Chris Gardner? Am I as much man as Muhammad Ali? Would I have stayed in prison for 27 years if I was Nelson Mandela? Or would I have just said whatever I need to say to get the hell out of there? And the bathroom scene in this movie, I can’t imagine that I would have been able to stand up that next morning and go to work the way that Chris was able to do it, to get to zero, absolutely nothing, to have nothing and the only thing you have left is an idea, and he woke up, washed his son in the sink, and went to work based on an idea. That is something that is hugely inspiring to me and my hope artistically is that it can be inspiring to other people, but as I sit here, I can’t imagine that I would have walked out of that bathroom the same person or as Chris Gardner did, walked out a better person.

How did you make your son know how to suffer?

Smith: 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 cryin’ 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?” and 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, “Oh, wow, no, it’s kind of like that.” And he said, “Daddy, my stomache 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!” And 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 Sheridan, 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 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.

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