Will Smith in pursuit and happyness

18 January 2007

Will Smith and son

Will Smith plays a homeless solo dad in gritty drama The Pursuit Of Happyness, opening on Friday January 12. He opens up about shedding his wise-cracking, action man persona.

By Robin Walker

Will Smith is a living example that anything is possible if you put your mind to it - which handily is also the underlying theme of his latest film.

In The Pursuit of Happyness the 38-year-old Bad Boys and Men In Black star sheds his familiar wisecracking action hero persona. Inspired by the true story of Chris Gardner, who in the 1980s recession managed to pull himself and his young son out of homelessness in San Francisco, the film sees a lower key performance for the rapper-turned-actor.

Playing a homeless single father who accepts an unpaid intern position in a prestigious stock brokerage firm, Will says he felt close to his character's real-life counterpart.

"I connected with Chris Gardner," Will says. "We looked in one another's eyes and I said, 'I'm going to tell your story'. And he said, 'Just tell the truth'."

Will says he became fascinated with Gardner when he saw a television report of his rags-to-riches tale. "When I saw that 20/20 piece in which Chris retraces the steps, there is a segment where he goes into the actual bathroom where he slept in with his son. I was like, 'I'm making that movie.'"

As the film shows him moving from an apartment to surviving in a homeless shelter and subway station, Will's version of Chris is a model of persistence. All the while he tries desperately to let his son know that he's loved, no matter the circumstance.

The actor's dad role is genuine: Chris' onscreen child is played by Will's own son, eight-year-old Jaden. Still, he found himself struggling to step out of his own acting mechanisms - a hard thing for an actor who is renowned for his obsessive attention to preparation.

"I had so many emotional roadblocks to the truth of the characters because I know what a character needs to do to be likeable," Will explains.

He also had to learn to quit playing to his audience, with director Gabriele Muccino telling the Hollywood superstar to stop posing for the camera. "He told me, you are making faces like you are hurt. Go away and come back when you hurt for real," Will recalls.

"I was like wow, he knows all my tricks. All the Willisms I know how to do to make the audience laugh or cry. They beat those things out of me."

His own son also weighed in, he adds. "Jaden said I did the same thing every take. I was a little offended by that but what he as saying was that innately he couldn't understand how I was reading everything exactly the same way every time. He was feeling like, 'that's not real'."

Having the real Chris on-hand also helped a lot, the likeable actor says. "If something wasn't feeling right I would go away with Chris for an hour and just have him talk me through it. Try to get me mentally into the space of the moment."

The film is about someone who would not give power to failure, Will says, a sentiment he endorses. "You can call it arrogance, you can call it naivete. But I truly believe where you are hoping to create something, it's a much more powerful space to know that you will not be denied. Whatever's out there, you're running over it."

In many ways that has been the secret of Will's own phenomenal success. He has always had an unshakeable belief in himself - even that he can do the biggest job in the land.

"A few years ago I said I honestly believe I could be President of the United States. Now there were probably political experts that laughed. But put me on a lie detector right now and I positively believe I could be president."

Growing up in middle class West Philadelphia, Will got the nickname Prince early on because of the way he could charm his way out of trouble. After starting out as a rapper he ended up playing himself in the television series The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air. Then the action flick Bad Boys launched his movie stardom.

Will tasted the high life early on. "My first record came out while I was a senior at high school, which was dangerous. Life was too good.

"I found it a whole different thing being an actor. A rapper is about being true to yourself. Being an actor is about changing who you are. You become a different person."

Looking back he's amazed to have become a 20-million-dollar-a-role star. "It has been beyond anything I've ever dreamed. I just put my head down and run hard and I'm always surprised when I look up and see where I am."

He's also run a good race in his personal life - Will has strong beliefs when it comes to the importance of his family. He and actress wife Jada Pinkett Smith have two children, Jaden and six-year-old daughter Willow. He also has a 14-year-old son Willard to ex-wife Sheree Smith.

Having been through a divorce it's not something he'll go through again, the devoted family man says. "With Jada I stood up in front of God and my family and said, 'till death us do part'. Divorce cannot be an option."

Fortunately he has met his soulmate: "I honestly believe there is no woman for me but Jada. No-one can handle me the way she does.

"Once you feel someone locked in on you, it's no contest. This is it. I can't imagine what anyone else would offer."

On the movie front Will is keeping up the dramas, starring next in I Am Legend, about the last man in a world of vampires.

"I'm interested to see how people react to it. We've designed something aggressive and different. We're sneaking a small art film character drama into the middle of a big summer blockbuster.