Will Smith: Los demonios de Will Smith

«In the last thirty years I have faced failure, loss, humiliation, divorce and death. I have seen how my life was in danger, how they took my money, how they invaded my privacy, how my family disintegrated. And yet, every day I got up, mixed cement and laid another brick,” writes Will Smith (Philadelphia, 1968) in his biography, published last year. In it he states that throughout his career he has been “absolutely relentless.” “I have given myself with a work ethic of unlimited intensity,” the actor, star of the Oscars, proudly punched comedian Chris Rock after making a joke about his wife.

That rapper who became immensely popular when he became an actor in ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ in the early 90s has been an icon of show business and a bulwark of the black community for decades. He is also an unusually candid star, who has spoken openly about his traumas and problems. In ‘Will’ (Zenith publishing house) the figure of his father is fundamental, a violent and alcoholic man who mistreated his mother and whom the actor never confronted. Smith does not come from a poor neighborhood, but from an affluent suburb of Philadelphia. He was a rapper who was made fun of because he was not a thug nor did he deal drugs. But he has always felt “a coward” because he didn’t even do anything when his mother collapsed and spit up blood.

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The idea of ​​suicide crossed his mind, as well as the thought of killing his father. Ironically, she would end up taking care of him when he fell ill with cancer and died in 2016. His love life has also been complicated. Before meeting actress Jada Pinkett, with whom he has been married since 1997 and has two children, Jaden, 23, and Willow, 21, he considered himself “a sexual predator” who slept with any woman who crossed his path. . Pinkett and Smith sank into alcoholism at the beginning of a relationship that has provided juicy headlines throughout. Two years ago, Pinkett confessed on a television show in front of her own husband that she was unfaithful with rapper August Alsina. Smith consented to this affair and reached an agreement with his wife to maintain an open relationship.

The protagonist of ‘Men in Black’ and ‘Bad Boys’ has taken forty years to resolve the traumas of his childhood. «I wanted to build an external life that could cover all that pain. “This optimistic and happy image comes from a real lack of self-esteem and self-respect,” he says in ‘Will’. Despite that ‘white’ image of a mass idol, the actor and musician has spoken at length about how he borrowed money from a drug dealer at the beginning of his career or his ruin at the age of 22 after defrauding the Treasury. . His trips with ayahuasca with a shaman in Peru, he says, helped him find a stability that reaches his finances: according to ‘Forbes’, his fortune amounts to 45.5 million dollars . One of the worst moments of his life, he confesses in his memoirs, is when his son Jaden requested legal emancipation at the age of 15 after starring alongside his father in the disastrous ‘After Earth’. “There is nothing worse than knowing that you have hurt your children,” laments the actor.