In a new magazine interview, the 'Focus' star opens up about the movie he stars in with his son Jaden which grossed $60.5 million domestically in 2013.
- Feb 13, 2015
AceShowbiz - Will Smith, who is gearing up for his new film "Focus" with Margot Robbie, opens up about his experience in 25 years of his acting career. Smith who covers the front page of the latest edition of Esquire speaks in length regarding lessons he learned in life as well as his previous film "After Earth". Also starring his son Jaden Smith, the 2013 sci-fi directed by M. Night Shyamalan collected $60.5 million domestically.
Calling the movie "a valuable lesson," Smith explains, "That was the most painful failure in my career. 'Wild Wild West' was less painful than 'After Earth' because my son was involved in 'After Earth' and I led him into it. That was excruciating."
"What I learned from that failure is how you win. I got reinvigorated after the failure of 'After Earth'. I stopped working for a year and a half. I had to dive into why it was so important for me to have number-one movies. And I never would have looked at myself in that way," he continues.
Shortly after receiving news about the movie underperforming, Smith learned of more bad news. "I get the box-office numbers on Monday and I was devastated for about twenty-four minutes, and then my phone rang and I found out my father had cancer. That put it in perspective -viciously. And I went right downstairs and got on the treadmill. And I was on the treadmill for about 90 minutes," he shares.
Smith's view of life changed. "That Monday started the new phase of my life, a new concept: Only love is going to fill that hole. You can't win enough, you can't have enough money, you can't succeed enough. There is not enough. The only thing that will ever satiate that existential thirst is love. And I just remember that day I made the shift from wanting to be a winner to wanting to have the most powerful, deep, and beautiful relationships I could possibly have," he explains.
Will Smith on kids, his career, Ferguson, and failure: https://t.co/Og25WtppqV pic.twitter.com/Q0a4dYsKSm
— Esquire Magazine (@Esquiremag) February 12, 2015
