Will Smith Pursues Happyness

[MissAshley]

a cool interview, some funny bits about Jaden

Will Smith Pursues Happyness

Source: Edward Douglas

December 7, 200

When you're in the presence of Will Smith, you quickly learn why he's one of the country's most popular and successful superstars. Even while doing press, probably the most aggravating aspect of filmmaking, Smith is a charming and eloquent speaker who laughs warmly at every question, making everyone in the room feel comfortable.

Smith's latest movie The Pursuit of Happyness takes him about as far away from the Will Smith we're used to seeing as possible. It's based on the true story of Chris Gardner, a down-on-his-luck salesman who wound up living on the streets of San Francisco with his young son in order to achieve his dream of becoming a stockbroker. Will Smith's seven-year-old son, Jaden Christopher Syre Smith, makes his big screen debut as Chris Gardner's son, and considering how many scenes he steals from his popular dad, ComingSoon.net was surprised not to see the boy at his father's side while doing interviews, but Smith seemed particularly introspective while talking about the experience.

ComingSoon.net: Your son's been in just one movie, and he's already refusing to do press?

Will Smith: (laugh) 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)

CS: Was it assumed that he would play your son when you first started developing the movie?

Smith: Oh, no, not at all. Jada and I were layin' in the bed one night, he's between us, and we're both reading the script, and he was 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 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 paying attention a little bit." Gabriele Mucchino the director, he just fell in love with him. [does impression of Italian director] "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)

CS: Was there ever thought of completing the trifecta by having Jada appear in the movie 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. We're trying to keep a happy home, so we avoid that.

CS: Did this project start when you first met Chris Gardner?

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. It was a 20/20 piece and Mark Clayman, Todd Black, and 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. 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. 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. Then after that, to actually shoot the scene with my real son on my lap… no acting necessary.

CS: Since your life is so unlike Chris', what could you relate to most as far as his life was concerned?

Smith: Without getting too esoteric about it, I 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. 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. 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.

CS: Now that you're a parent, does your song "Parents Just Don't Understand" have more meaning to you?

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. We were on the set and we had done a few takes. 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, and Jaden just looked up and he says, "You just do the same thing every time, daddy." 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. 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.

CS: Since Jaden must have a good life, how did you get him to cry and experience the suffering of Chris' son?

Smith: He's an extremely sensitive child. 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. The night before, Jaden comes in the room cryin' and he's like "I need to talk to you. Why are you making me lie to mommy? Mommy asked me what were we doing tomorrow and I had to tell her a lie." I was like, "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." He said, "Yeah, but that's a lie, right? Daddy, my stomach hurts and I can't sleep. I don't want to lie to my mommy. Can we wake her up? I have to tell her 'cause I'm getting sick." 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 Gabriele used is he would just explain it to Jaden. We didn't give him line readings. Gabriele would just explain it, and he just understands, he just gets it.

CS: Did Jaden come up with any of his own jokes for the movie?

Smith: 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. Those are all his.

CS: In one scene, the two of you end up staying at San Francisco's Glide homeless shelter. Can you talk about that experience?

Smith: Reverend Cecil Williams was very open with us and welcomed us in. 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 committed their lives to other people, you just feel like you ain't doin' nothin' 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 and 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. 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 that there's people a lot smarter than me working on it.

CS: It's surprising that the movie never addresses the racial issues of the times and how that affected Chris' situation.

Smith: There's a movie called "What the BLEEP," I don't know if you're familiar with it. 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. 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. 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.

CS: How does it feel to be in the Oscar race at this time of year?

Smith: 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's 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 that 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 slippin'. 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.

CS: Did you think at all about 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'… 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. He was stealin' scene after scene on me. But it's a beautiful thing.

The Pursuit of Happyness opens on December 15.

source: http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=17812

the Fresh Prince's kid, has the fpoba box sets... that just upped his cool factor, lmao at him spoiling the surprise :3-laugh3:

Edited December 7, 2006 by MissAshley

[Guest Guest_gosia_*]

and the oscar goes to ... :bowdown:

[Turntable]

Cool interview. Thanks!

[Hero1]

Thanks for that :sipread:

[MaxFly]

This was a great article. Thanks... Oscar

[davidventuraz]

Hablen en espanol cono que yo no entiendo na de esta vaina.......

[Angel Amor]

Thanks 4 that MA! :2thumbs:

[Jazzy Julie]

thanx that was a good one!

[Guest Guest]

great article...thanks

[Sandy]

thanks. NIce interview!