Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Will Smith confronts life and death
The actor discusses the death of his father and his moving new film, ‘Collateral Beauty’
It didn’t take Will Smith very long to commit to “Collateral Beauty,” the latest dramedy from “Devil Wears Prada” helmer David Frankel. In fact, all the Philadelphia native had to do was give the screenplay a quick read to say yes to the project which reminded him of a time-honored Christmas classic.
“When I first read the screenplay, it spoke to that Christmas flavor that I remember growing up, particularly ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ and all those types of films that are right on the edge of fantasy with that Christmas magic to them,” says Smith.
“I liked how the movie was right on the edge [of fantasy] but dealing with things that are deeply and powerfully real and human.”
Smith stars as Howard, a successful New York businessman whose life goes off course after the death of his daughter. His pals (Kate Winslet, Edward Norton, Michael Pena) watch and worry as Howard tries to work through his grief by writing letters to Death, Time and Love.
But then the seemingly impossible happens when Love, Time and Death show up to help Howard through the healing process. As played by Keira Knightley, Jacob Latimore and Helen Mirren, respectively, these forces encourage Howard to live again.
“I love that [my character] was a guy who had the world on a string,” says Smith, 48. “Everything was perfect. He had it all. He had life figured out, and then he suffered a loss and had to make his way back to even believing there was a possibility to have joy again. I loved that journey.
“There’s a Khalil Gibran quote that I love. He said, ‘Our pain is the knife that hollows us out so that we may hold more joy.’ I thought that that was a really interesting idea, that you suffer pain and you are torn open for the purpose of being able to hold more light and joy and positivity. And I think that’s the collateral beauty of the type of suffering which Howard experienced in this film.”
Sadly for Smith, he had to deal with some of the same experiences in real life that he was dealing with on the film. Six months into filming the movie, Smith got word that his father had terminal cancer and was given just six weeks to live. William Carroll Smith Sr. wound up outliving that prognosis but perishing on Nov. 7, 2016.
“It was a truly beautiful time for [my father] and I [because] I was in Howard’s mind, studying and reading all of the different religions and being able to find answers for how we recover from this kind of loss,” says Smith.
“I was sharing all that with my father through the whole experience, [sharing] everything from the Tibetan Book of the Dead to [books by] Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. Everything that you possibly do to deal with the inevitable pain of death, I was able to do it as Howard, but also able to share and work on with my father.
“This movie … and all these ideas have changed me forever. It’s the ultimate human difficulty. How do you deal with death and loss? It was the perfect life/art confluence.” Making the movie also prompted Smith to revisit some of the happiest moments of his life. Asked to name his most blissful experience, Smith remembers the birth of his daughter Willow, and the feelings of affection he had for his wife, actress Jada Pinkett.
“I’ve had huge, life-changing moments, almost all centered around love,” says Smith. “I am a serious, hopeless romantic. I think the greatest experience of love I’ve ever had was when my daughter was born. I remember when Willow was born, I took Willow and I sat her down with Jada, and just looking at the two of them, that was as full as I ever have been.
“That is the maximum amount of love I have ever felt or experienced in my life. It was the safest and purest and happiest that I’ve ever been in my life, and I think subconsciously I chase that every day of my life. I chase that feeling and that experience.”
Smith says there’s never enough love to go around, as far as he’s concerned.
“Nothing tortures me more than love,” he explains. “There’s nothing in life that I experience more pain around than love. Even in dealing with my father’s passing, what comes back to me and how I react to that is, ‘Jada, you’re not loving me enough.’
“Everything is about, ‘Listen, if we going to die, we need to spend more time together.’ The craving for love for me is far beyond the loss of death and far beyond the punishment of time.”
There was a time when it would have been inconceivable to imagine Smith starring in such a nakedly inspirational film as “Collateral Beauty.” After making his starring film debut in “Six Degrees of Separation,” Smith gravitated to a handful of comedies and action movies, scoring big with the likes of “Bad Boys,” “Independence Day” and the “Men In Black” movies.
But lately, beginning with his turn in “The Pursuit of Happyness” opposite his son Jaden in 2006, Smith has been increasingly drawn to more dramatic roles. Sure, he starred in “Suicide Squad” earlier this year but his preference these days is for meatier projects which leave audiences with something to think about.
“As I’m having more life experiences, it is allowing me to be able to connect to more complex, deeper human emotions,” says the actor. “As an artist, I am my tool. My life experience is my well, so as I have more life experiences, [my work changes].
“My daughter just turned 16 so I watched my 16-yearold daughter drive away from the house with her driver’s license. That’s my youngest child. She’s 16. Now I’m open to be able to deliver unique and different textured performances of a father with a 16-year-old daughter.
“I’ve been in the spotlight for 30 years, I released my first record [with DJ Jazzy Jeff] 30 years ago in 1986. So, I’ve been doing this for 30 years.
“I was just a kid, and the things that I was doing had a beautiful, youthful exuberance to them, and I try to maintain some piece of that. But the things that I think about now and who I am now and how I live on a daily basis are a little bit more complex than the Fresh Prince.”
“So, I’m trying to be brave enough to not cling backwards but to go bravely into the unknown, potentially unaccepted. I just want to be able to courageously go forward and find those new things and deliver those new ideas.”