Will-ful

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Will-ful

Like his 'Happyness' character, Will Smith's success isn't about luck

LOOKING AT Will Smith's phenomenal success, it would be tempting to conclude that luck had a lot to do with it.

He was lucky, perhaps, that his investor group (one that included basketball legend Julius Erving) did not agree to pay top dollar recently for the 76ers, a franchise they may be able to get next month on craigslist.com.

Maybe it was luck that led him to Jeffrey Townes' basement, back in the day, establishing the triple-platinum friendship that became DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. Maybe he was lucky to find a hit sitcom when his musical career hit a few bumps, lucky that his movie "Bad Boys" became a hit, lucky to land a role in "Independence Day."

Maybe, but spend any time around the hard-driving Smith or the people who work with him, and you get a different idea.

"What is it they say about luck - the residue of design?" asked Smith, in New York with his son Jaden to promote their new movie "The Pursuit of Happyness." "Other people say it's when preparation meets opportunity. That's a variation of the philosophy I got from my father, who used to tell me that slow and steady wins the race.

"If the other guy is sleeping eight hours, you sleep seven, and you're going to win, period, it's that simple. I have huge faith in the other guy's unwillingness to give 110 percent. Huge faith."

Smith plays Jaden's father in "Happyness," a fact-based story of a man who bucks homelessness to become a stockbroker and financial whiz.

The man's name is Chris Gardner, and when Smith saw his life story on the TV news program "20/20," he must have thought he'd found a soul mate. Gardner, like Smith, is a fellow who could find a needle of opportunity in a haystack of obstacles.

"You can call it arrogance, you can call it naïvete, you can call it foolishness, but I have an uncanny ability to make myself believe things," said Smith. "I make myself believe things because if you don't believe, it's not going to happen. And I don't acknowledge boundaries."

Smith recalls that he'd only recently made the jump from the recording studio to television when he told friend-manager James Lassiter (his partner in Overbrook Productions) that he wanted to be the biggest movie star in Hollywood.

"We said, 'OK, how can we make that happen?' So we looked at the top 10 movies of all time, and looked for patterns we could take advantage of," he said.

They were easy to spot - special effects movies with alien creatures, and love stories. So, when Smith heard about "Independence Day," he lobbied hard for the part of the fighter pilot who saves his girlfriend, then the world.

"If there was a stroke of luck involved, it's that producer Dean Devlin happened to be a huge Jazzy Jeff fan," Smith said, laughing - he still had to battle for the job, just as he'd battled to win the role in "Bad Boys," when the studio had insisted on comedian Arsenio Hall.

There were more special effects and aliens in "Men In Black," and by the time the sequel had made him a triple-platinum movie star, Smith had already begun to yearn for something that would test him, stretch him, demand more of him as an actor.

And, no, it wasn't "The Legend of Bagger Vance." It was "Ali," directed by Michael Mann, whom Smith credits with putting his instinct for preparation to good use (Smith spent a year preparing for the role), and who prevented Smith from using his audience-pleasing "go-to" moves.

"I'm the Allen Iverson of the acting world," joked Smith. "How are you not going to let me use my crossover dribble?"

Mann demanded more of Smith, and it paid off with an Oscar nomination. Smith said he got the same kind of grief from Italian director Gabrielle Muccino ("The Last Kiss"), who gave the superstar a pretty hard time on the set of "Happyness," once walking off because Smith was "posing," not acting.

That's the kind of firm hand Smith wants - it was Smith who insisted that Muccino get the job when the studio wanted somebody with a Hollywood track record.

"Gabrielle was totally protected by Will's star power," said Thandie Newton, who plays Gardner's estranged wife in the movie.

Actors always worry that the studio won't support a rookie director, she said, "but that didn't happen because Will knew the movie would work if Gabrielle were allowed to make the movie he wanted to make."

Newton was consistently amazed by Smith's bottomless energy and commitment on the set - juggling his roles as producer, actor, father.

"I honestly don't know how he did it," she said. "I can say, though, that Will has incredible tenacity. And he shows it every day on the set."

Gardner said Smith showed it in his research as well - he took Smith to San Francisco shelters and train terminals where he and his son spent nights. Smith noticed something that most people don't.

"He said, 'A lot of these people are dressed up to go someplace.' That's true. Twelve percent of homeless people have jobs," said Gardner, who hustled his way through a stockbroker training program while living on the streets.

There are no space aliens or special effects in "Happyness," a performance-driven movie that looks at homelessness and also at paternal devotion. The movie downplays race, but its story of an African-American father's fierce devotion to his son is conspicuous on screen because too few movies offer anything even remotely like it.

"In putting the movie together, we never had any conversations about that," said Smith. "The story is based on a specific trauma that happened to Chris as a child, and his reaction to that trauma." Gardner was disowned by his father, and vowed as a consequence to be the best father he could be.

"But I think the feeling that we get about the connection between father and son illuminates the statistical reality of the missed connection we see in society," Smith said.

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/living/16227249.htm

[thommey]

nice article!

[MaxFly]

Nice article.