Audience: Why this book? Why now ?
Will Smith: Because I assume that the best person to write about their life is the one who has lived it! Before anyone looks at my career, my journey, I wanted to reestablish some truths. Reset certain clocks on time.
Entire pages are devoted to your progenitor …
He was a former soldier who had started his own business. I can assure you that you shouldn’t overheat her ears. In my room, the bed had to be made squared. Nothing was lying around! Creating a company was courageous enough in his day for a black man. With my brother, we installed and maintained his freezers. We also made ice cream. Did we enjoy it? No ! We had to follow orders, period.
You admired this father, while dreading him …
When I was 9, I saw my father beat up my mother. One of her blows hit her head and she collapsed. She was coughing up blood. I started to hate this father I loved so much. Growing up with an alcoholic and abusive man has been a tough experience that has shaped my entire life. I felt this shame for not taking action, and that feeling of guilt was devastating.
We have the feeling that you are looking through this book to make you forgive …
Nothing will compensate for this lack of courage. I will not stop apologizing to my mother for my inaction. For not having stood up to my father. In short, to be a coward. My father passed away in 2016. So I was free to be able to tell the truth about my childhood, which I would not have been able to do if he was still in this world. There too, a lack of courage.
Where did your taste for the show come from?
My grandmother Gigi loved when I danced, my mother loved when I told jokes. As for my father, he loved filming me with his Super 8 camera. And then I was like: “If everyone is having fun, during that time nobody gets beaten up.” It was like a defense mechanism. Then I discovered rap. I was a coward on a daily basis, but as I became a master of rhyme, I started to bulge my chest, to stand up straight, because I knew that I could pulverize the fools with my chat!
“I was forced to sell everything, even my cars”
In 1987, when your first album came out, your mom didn’t give a damn about your success …
Yes because she wanted me to go to university … When I explained to her that I wasn’t going, it looked like a scene from The Exorcist. As for being a rapper, she retorted: “Out of the question”. And when I insisted, she finally admitted: “Because I don’t know what it is!” (Laughs.) Finally, my father decided. “Will, I’ll give you and your buddy a year to prove yourself!” And I said OK. That year, we won our first Grammy.
You will go back to your parents, but for another reason …
Yes, after the album came out, we were on top of the world. At the time, I had about six cars and motorcycles. I had just forgotten a little detail, Uncle Sam doesn’t appreciate that you can’t pay your taxes! I was forced to sell everything including my cars and I took over my room with my parents.
“As a child, I wanted to be a top scientist”
How would you define Will Smith as a father?
Requiring ! Jada and I instilled in our children values that are dear to us, such as respect for others, perseverance, integrity and listening to others. Of course, they fell into a wealthy family, but they also know that our destinies can change very quickly. Raising children is not a science. It is an art form. And we made tons of mistakes. What was important was that they felt loved.
As a child, did you dream of being a star?
No, I wanted to be a high level scientist, a discoverer, an inventor. I was passionate about prehistory. So much so that I could almost have put together the skeleton of a T-Rex in complete darkness with my eyes blindfolded and one hand behind his back. And without putting a bite of the beast askew, please!
Did your father end up being proud?
I remember when Independence Day is out. We had broken all box office records. I hear my phone ringing at 3 a.m., it was my dad. He throws me: “Hey! Did you see those numbers?” Me, in limbo: “Daddy, it’s 3 am!” Him, insisting: “Do you remember I told you that there is no such thing as luck? That it is only the job that counts? Do you remember?” Me : “I know daddy, you’re repeating yourself!” “Well actually man, that’s a lot of bullshit. You’re the biggest fucking lucky guy I’ve ever met!” (Laughs.)
Key dates
September 25, 1968
Birth in Philadelphia of a mother employed in a school and of a refrigeration technician father.
2. 1990
After a very good debut in rap, he became world famous thanks to the sitcom Le Prince de Bel-Air.
3. December 31, 1997
Marriage with Jada Pinkett, met in 1994 on a casting for The Prince of Bel-Air. They have two children together, Jaden, 23, and Willow, 21.
4. End of 2021
He pulls out his autobiography and returns to screens in The William Method, a biopic of tennis champions Serena and Venus, in which he plays their father.
See also: Will Smith confirms the reboot of “Prince of Bel-Air”
Interview by Frank Rousseau, in Los Angeles