Will Smith Breaks His Silence | 360 with Speedy

Do you remember what it feels like to not be famous?

Um, no.

What's going on guys? I'm Speedy and the name of this show is 360 with Speedy and boy do we have a special one in the building today. An icon, a legend, a Grammy winner, an Academy Award winner, a Hollywood blockbuster sensation, one of the biggest movie stars to ever walk this

earth. Will Smith is in the building. Wow, I thought Denzel was here. Denzel? I mean, bar for bar, it's close. The accolades are there. Will, how are you man? Man, I am a spectabulous. Okay, that's a new one.

Man, we're in Miami, a place that's I guess a second home to you? Yeah, that's where that's where it all

began. You know, it was with Marty Ma back here in the early 90s, but before Miami was hot. You know,

we got it before everybody knew about it. Let's take it back to the beginning for a bit. Before Dana Goodman discovered the Fresh Prince, you were just Will. Yeah, Big Willie. Yeah, Big Willie,

Woodcrest. Woodcrest. Oh man, you went deep, you went deep. Okay. As the story goes, you start to have

a little bit of musical success while you're still in high school. Overbrook High School, your last 30 days there or so, you had a song that was on the radio. Yeah, that's too much power for

one man to have. What was that like? You know, it was like the first time that I experienced a sense of power. Right. And it was like something about going from just, you know, being Lil Will to having a record on the radio was like, oh, you know, and back then the song on the radio was gigantic. It was

that first experience of what it meant to have energy in the world that was power to move things.

You wound up becoming a trailblazer in yet another department because you won a Grammy.

Yes. Was it the first hip hop artist to ever win a Grammy? Yeah, it was the first year that

the Grammys recognize rap. Yeah. So they had a rap category and we actually boycotted because they weren't televising it. But Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince ended up winning the first Grammy ever given

to a rap artist. Jay-Z just got honored for some sort of Grammy equivalent to like a lifetime achievement award. While he was on stage, he said, you know, Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince won the first ever rap Grammy and they boycotted. Did you know he was going to say that? No. Did you catch it after the fact?

Yeah, I caught it after the fact. What did you think when you saw that? You know, I never,

I don't draw those kind of lines in my mind from the idea of, oh, wow, rappers are on the stage at the Grammys today. And that's potentially connected to a sacrifice that we made. Like I don't, I don't draw those kind of lines. So it was interesting hearing, hearing Jay say that because they kind of was like, oh yeah, you know, maybe we did push the Grammys to like start to recognize, uh, rap music. Yeah.

Did you get a chance to speak to him after? No, no, I haven't spoken to him yet. Oh, okay.

It was special even for us as a hip hop fan, uh, you know, this many years, 50 years exactly.

I know. That's great. You know, to see that there's still

battles being fought. You know, I'm, I'm, I'm 55 and I, I just don't, I don't think of myself like that. I feel, um, I feel late thirties at the like top. Like, ain't no way I'm more than 38.

I hurt my neck trying to wash my hair about eight months ago. Literally. It's happening, man.

Like full on sports injuries from doing nothing. You seemed a bit more, I imagine you were more nimble when you copped that first blue Suzuki Katana 600. Yeah. I crashed that thing a couple

times. What happened? You did it. You did a lot of homework. I was like, okay, you know,

all that, you know, that's what you do. I gotta do my research. You're like, you know,

yeah, no, that was, that was, uh, I had a motorcycle phase. I fell one good time and I was like, mm, no, I think I'm a, I think I'm gonna leave those alone. I'm not, I'm not the motorcycle dude.

Um, I mean, you've told this story, uh, it seems a thousand times, but having you in front of me, there's no way I cannot ask you to at least recollect a part of it. Uh, the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is such a pivotal moment, not only in my life, in my childhood, but quite literally in probably global culture at large. Uh, but the audition came on a whim. Uh, why is it important

to always be ready when opportunity presents itself? To me, success is, you know, a big part preparation, right? So you, you, you certainly have to be prepared, but there's an X factor.

You're waiting for lightning to strike, right? You're waiting for the universe to decide that the door is going to open for a brief moment. And it's like, it turns from a solid wall to a door in an instant. And then it closes back, right? So the idea of you have no idea when lightning is going to strike in your life. Even in this room, I don't know everybody in this room, right? But I

stay wildly attuned to the potential magic, right? And it's like always paying attention because like the universe is trying to give you what you want. The universe is fighting so hard to give you

what you want, you know, and you're just missing it. Your lightning specifically, that lightning strike moment for you having at a party. Yeah. At Quincy Jones's house. Yeah. Can you set the scene for

us a bit? So there's a guy named Benny Medina. Benny Medina is actually the real live Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Benny had gone from Watts to Beverly Hills. He pitched me the show. I was like, yeah, okay, that's cool. And he invited me to Quincy's house. It was Quincy's birthday after the Soul Train Music Awards. I was in town. I was just going to meet Quincy. So we go and he said, hey, you know, did Benny tell you about the show? So yeah, you know, Benny told me it's really cool. You interested?

Quincy, he had been drinking a little bit that night. And he was like, he was like, all right, we're going to do an audition. I was like, what? There were, you know, a bunch of people in the room. And Quincy wanted me to do an audition in the middle of his living room at a party. And I was like, yo, Q, I can't, I can't do a, I can't do a audition. I don't, I haven't studied anything. And you know, he took me in the other room and he was like, okay, tell me what you need. And I was like, Q, I need a couple of weeks. I'm not even really an actor.

Let me, can I just give me, if I can get a script and I can get something to work on. He said, oh, so you need two weeks. I said, yeah. And he said, well, what's going to happen in two weeks is Brandon Tartikoff, who's the head of NBC. Something's going to come up in his kid's game and he's not going to be able to do it. So he's going to postpone and he's going to need two weeks.

So then we'll, we'll do it in 30 days. And I was like, oh yeah, 30 days would be good.

That'd be more than that. Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. And he's like, but then his right hand, Warren Littlefield, something's going to come up and he's not going to be able to be there.

And they got to postpone again. And he said, but right now, everybody that needs to say yes to this show is sitting in my living room waiting for you to audition. And I was like, fuck it. Give me 10 minutes.

It was such a valuable lesson. It's like, there's very few things more powerful than fucking, fucking just leaping. Just go. You know, it's like you have the dream, the opportunity's there. Just go, you know, and I was in his, uh, in his library and it was like a Oprah Winfrey colored purple poster and a Michael Jackson, 48 million sold.

You know, Michael was looking at me. He was like, what you going to do? Well, you know,

if you, if you close your eyes, are you able to see yourself in that 10 minute span?

It's like, do you even like recall it? It's crazy. It's like a, it's like a blank spot.

It's a total blank spot in my memory. Like I have no recollection of what I said and what I did.

It was just a standing ovation. Everybody stood up and clapped and Quincy pointed to the head of NBC.

He said, did you like it? And he said, yeah, Quincy. He said, don't bullshit me. I'm asking you, did you like it? You know what I mean? And Quincy had everybody's lawyers come to the house that night.

He said, I need to deal memo tonight. He, he understands magic, you know? And that's the, that's the thing about Quincy. It's like, he, he knows that you can only work to a certain degree.

You can only prepare to a certain degree. You can be a master, uh, piano player. You can be a master, you know, basketball player, but for the magic to happen and you become LeBron, you become Kobe, like that's a, that's a, that's another thing. Tom Brady's a really good example of somebody who knows how to stay steady and wait for magic. You know, he knows in the third quarter magic shows up all the

time. It doesn't matter what happened in the first two quarters. He's waiting for the magical wave and then he's going to be prepared. And when it comes, cause he knows, he knows about it. And other people

don't, you know, beautiful, beautiful. When's the last time you sat down and watched one full episode

of the Fresh Prince? Oh, one full episode. Well, I think I saw the whole pilot. Me and Jeff watched a whole pilot about two years ago. And it was like, uh, I generally will catch pieces and scenes and stuff like that. But we watched the whole pilot episode of, of Fresh Prince, uh, a couple of years

ago. Damn, two years ago. Yeah. And then before that, I imagined probably even longer. Yeah, no, I hadn't,

I hadn't, um, I'm more watch, um, a movie. I'll watch a, a whole movie of mine, but more from the study

standpoint than from entertainment. Sure. Yeah. A lot of people have, artists specifically, have interesting relationships with some of their biggest records. I know. A lot of times, artists don't really fuck with their, like, uh, Soldier Boy. Yeah. Crank Dad is like one of his biggest songs. Maybe he doesn't like it. Or, you know, Kanye West, maybe he doesn't like his,

cause he's sick of hearing it. Willow will never sing with my hair. Never. Yeah. See, that's an example.

It's, it's probably the record everybody. Oh, Willow with my hair. Yes, please. What is your relationship like with the theme song of Fresh Prince? Um, I had that brief moment. I had that

brief moment and, and it's just, it's just the biggest record I've ever had. There's like everywhere in the world. And, you know, I, I haven't been on stage in, at any point in the last 20 years where I didn't hold the microphone out and everybody knew every word of the theme song and every country and people don't even speak English, you know, the phonetic. But do you like the song? Um,

You don't. Yeah, no, no, no. I was like, you like it? No. Like, I, I, I like what it

means to my life. Right? I wouldn't, I wouldn't say I, I like it. Right? But I like, I like what it means. Fair. I like, I like how people like it. Okay. That's the most diplomatic. Yes. Shit I ever

heard. But I feel you though. 99.9% of artists don't have a bomb in their pocket that at the drop of a hat in any room. Any room, yeah. On the earth, they can just go, okay, watch this. Yeah. Boom.

And then it explodes. So I imagine that has got to be a feeling. Yeah. It's, it's fantastic. Yeah.

It's like every, everybody ain't here. If I said, this is a story all about everybody. Right? So it's,

it's like, that's beautiful. Yeah. TV fame is one thing. And I imagine movie fame is something different. Yeah, for sure. What are some of the differences that maybe someone like me, the layman, wouldn't understand in terms of the differences between a television star and a movie

star? Well, the, the, the big difference between a television star and a movie star in terms of fans is, um, uh, TV has changed now. It's a very, it's a different thing. But back then, it was a destination television and you had to be there at Monday night, your Monday night at eight, or you might not see it for six months, you know? So a different thing got created with that. And what would happen with television is people watched it like in their house, in their underwear.

Right? So they know you, you're their friend. Whereas when people would see a movie star, you know, it was a whole different thing on the, on the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. When I would see people, Hey, Will, Hey, Will, Hey, Will. And then as soon as Independence Day came out, it was the first time somebody called me Mr. Smith. Right? So it was a really, you know, movie stardom, that big screen and people watch and you're bigger than life. Whereas

television, you get, you get downsized. 32 inches. Yeah. 32 feet to 32 inches. Exactly.

Uh, did you, as you were first getting those first tastes of movie fame, did you like it? I love being

famous. Like, um, it makes me feel safe. Right? It's like somebody knows who I am anywhere I go on earth. Like any street I walk on, somebody knows who I am. And I believe in the basic goodness of humanity. So I always feel safe. Like I feel like somebody will help me. Do you remember what it

feels like to not be famous? Um, no, it was like from the time I was, uh, you know, my first record was, you know, at 16, I started recording and, you know, by the time I was 18 years old, you know, I was

nationally famous, you know? So it's like for, for over three decades, you know, especially like once Independence Day came out. So like Independence Day and then Men in Black, that was like everybody.

That was like the whole earth everywhere, you know? And specifically those two back to back, um,

is what, what made me recognizable. Um, and then also, you know, when you're black and you're 6'2, it's like you go somewhere in the world. You're, you know, you're a rapper or a basketball player, you know? So, so people look, you know, people, you're, you know, you're walking in the streets of Belgium, you know, you're, people like, that's somebody. Right. And then, you know,

it'll, it'll get around to, to people knowing. Box office success seems like it was the thing that always, uh, you gravitated towards. Yeah, for sure. Um, for, if you can try to help us understand what exactly it feels like to have a box office win, specifically one that is the highest grossing film ever or the highest grossing film of the year to, to finally get a report back of some sort that says, yo, we made $500 million or something. What's that feel like? It is

delicious poisoned honey. It's insatiable. It feels so good, except it's that Monday, you need to do it again. It is so addictive, you know? And, you know, I literally had to like detox myself from looking at box office mojo every day, waiting for them to reset the numbers,

you know? And wow, you know, bad boys three had a 20% drop in Spain. What happened in Spain between bad boys two and bad boys three? And what happened in Saudi? Why did Saudi go up? How is Saudi equal to Germany? Right? Like all of that, like it's, it's madness, you know? So I had to, uh, I had to, had to get out of there, but it's, it's, uh, like I said, the poisoned honey, it's delicious going down.

This interview was actually supposed to happen a couple months ago, but, uh, Jada had gone on a book tour, things had gone a bit sour, and love is a very personal thing. So what's it like for you having to navigate personal matters in the public eye when you don't intend for them to be that way?

I actually did intend for them to be that way. I want my life to be helpful. And the, the only

misjudgment I felt of that is that the world wouldn't be gentle. I want my life to be examined. And if I can learn something that will help you, if I can say something in this interview that when you leave, you'd be like, damn, that was great. Will got bitten, you know, down that road.

Now, you know, Speedy don't have to go down that one. Right. So, you know, there can, there, there certainly can be more artistry in, in the delivery of the gift, but I, I want to be able to talk about the things I've done right and the things I've done wrong and to be able to deliver them for people to look at, you know, and, and to me and an unexamined life is, uh, almost worthless, you know, so, um, you know, um, I'm going to do it, uh, more artfully this year.

I'm certainly, I'm, uh, I'm certainly going to be a little more delicate with it. But to me, the, the process of evolving and elevating and learning how to love and learning how to share and learning how to interact, like, that's what we're all doing, you know? And, you know, even though a lot of my stuff may be, uh, public, it's like, ain't nobody doing better than me.

It's like, just people just don't know your stuff.

Right, right, right. You just have it magnified.

Yeah, you know, so, so to me, um, um, I'm built for it.

Like, my, my goal is for my life and my experience to be firewood on the, the,

everybody's dreams. Like, you know, use it to learn and grow and, and evolve. And I ain't,

I'm not taking it with me anyway. So, right. There are things that people wouldn't expect you as a movie star to have to do. Uh, but recently you went to the DMV.

Yeah, I was like, you know, I just, I just haven't had a movie out in a while. So, they were like, ah, you know, we, we not going to cut you no slack. Well, come on down here.

Is your experience at the DMV as unpleasant as us?

Uh, no, no, they, I'm a plan. No, they actually were really great. It was really, really smooth, really, really easy. Um, you know, cause you have to take the picture and you need to take it in person and you got to do the fingerprint. I don't know if they do that in every state, but in California, you got to do the fingerprints, huh?

But it was overall a good experience for you. Yeah, it was overall smooth, smooth and easy.

Got, got my DMV in there, uh, in, in and out in 12 minutes. It was fantastic.

That is certainly a, a perk, I'm sure. A quick Google search says that your net worth is $350 million. Is that accurate? Um, I don't even know, man.

I, I don't, I don't discuss such things. Do you, do you ask someone who's had money, lost money, then had it again bigger than he ever imagined, uh, what, this lifestyle, does it feel on par to you now or are you still learning? Are you good with money now? Are you working on getting better? What's your relationship like with money?

No, this is the, uh, this is the downsize, uh, phase, uh, of my life. You know, I was, uh, you know, the first half of my life was gather, gather, gather, and the second half of my life is going to be, you know, give, give, give. I never understood, like, well, you know, you, you see people who will be rich and famous and, you know, they, they always have that moment somewhere around 50 where

something changes and, you know, you look at Jim Carrey was like a really drastic, one of the most drastic, you know, public transformations in that way. Um, uh, but what, what happens is you just realize, um, none of it can make you happy. And, you know, once you've bought everything you want and there's literally nothing on earth else that you want to buy, you, you, you know, I just wish that was a gift

that everybody could have because there's, there's nothing that material can do to satisfy you.

Mm. Right. It's like drinking salt water, right? Like you'll, you'll just, you'll never get enough.

You're just going to make yourself more and more thirsty. Right. Right. So it's like that, you know, I'm in that, that phase of my life, um, that can actually be scary when you realize that no relationship that no money, that no kids know that like, there's literally nothing that can make you happy. That happy is an internal full frontal contact with your dark night of the soul. And you

reconcile that you got to make happy in here. You got to make happy in here with none of that stuff.

Oh, damn. You got to take happy to the people you love. You can't try to get it from them.

Oh, you know? Yeah. And it's like, you got to take happy to work. You, you're not going to get happy from work. Right. And it's like, that is, you know, it's not for the faint of heart. Yeah.

There are a few people on earth that I feel even comfortable asking this question because I don't know that they would have the answer and you certainly will not, but you'll probably have something closer than I do. Uh, so as someone who has studied like a bunch of the religions, as someone who has done a ton of spiritual work, uh, what does Will Smith believe is the meaning of

life? Well, that's a, that's a, that's a big one. Um, so even the concept of the meaning of life is your mind trying to fathom the unfathomable. Just sit here for 30 seconds. Right? Yeah.

Look at me. Look at you while you're looking at me. Oh,

Hey, you just did it. Oh, trying to, it's not easy though. You're right. That's where you will

find the meaning of life. That's where you'll find it. So whatever that was, when you can make peace with that, that's the meaning of life. I'm hearing commotion that I think we have a special

guest pulling up. Is that what's happening right now? There's definitely, definitely some

sauce in the house. Oh man. I felt the original bad boy. I felt the sauce. The original bad boy.

Marty Ma. Marty Ma in the building. Oh man. Marty Ma. What a treat we have here. This is, this is, this is incredible. Uh, this link though is Martin, your sister is responsible for this link

up. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. When, uh, Columbia first came to me, you know, with the script, uh, my sister told me I should do it with Will Smith. Martin wanted to do it with Eddie.

Yeah. At first, you know. He didn't even contemplate. He was like, you know.

But I knew we couldn't get Eddie, you know. You know, couldn't afford Eddie, you know.

But, uh, but Will, Will was, uh, my sister was the one that said, I think you should do with Will Smith. And it was the best, best choice in the world. Yeah. You feel like you made the right decision. Most definitely because he's brilliant. I mean, his mind and the way he, uh, orchestrates and runs the, the set and everything. It's just, it's

brilliant. Yeah. Will, what do you, what do you, uh, what's it feel like now being in this seat next to your brother? Four films in the can now. I know. Four. No, you know what, what happens is,

it's like, you know, it's funny. So we were, we, we had like a wrap party for the, the, the film and we were, all of the old movies were up on the screen. So I'm standing, I was just looking at the old movies and I like it, I realized when, you know, we were making bad boys one, when we were making bad boys two, like I had in my mind, I wanted to be the biggest movie star in the world.

I wanted to do all of this. And I realized while you're planning your life and you, you think you're going somewhere, your life's actually happening. Your life's happening now. It's not happening when you think it's going to happen. And sitting and looking at those movies, I was like, yo, it was me and Martin. We was in Miami. It was like, young, young, young and free, wild and free.

And it was like, our lives were, it was perfect. Yet my younger self couldn't see I was already where I wanted to be, you know, and it was really, it was, it was fun. And on, on this movie, um, you know, Martin was just really focused on paying attention to the fact that we are in a good life. Yeah. And it was like literally, we in a good place, you know, like the first day on set,

you know, and I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. He said, hey, you know what I'm saying? He said, I just want you to know I love you, brother. Oh man. Yeah. I love him. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I was like, yeah, yeah. Love, love. He's like, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no. Get here with it.

You need to know this is real. This is, we ain't doing four for nothing. This is real. Real quick though,

Bad Boys for Life. Incredible cameo. We're in Miami now. DJ Khaled popped in for this. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. I heard a little rumor that he, he was, you know, he had a quick scene. His scene was maybe about two minutes. Is it true that Khaled, uh, was coming to set every day or like, like way before

he was actually supposed to be there to shoot his scene? Khaled was doing full method acting for, he was like in character walking to set and all of that. And I was like,

he'd be yelling out, yelling out his lines. He took it real serious. He took it real serious.

He did. He did. Yeah. Nah, but he, he's, uh, he's fun to have on set. Yeah. Shout out to Khaled.

That's my brother. Yeah. Lastly here. I mean, you guys have been brothers for so many years. Uh, and you know, the saying people need to give each other their flowers while they're still here. I'm sure that's something that you've done in private, but Will, what does a guy like Martin mean to you?

You know, Martin is all heart and it's like, it ain't no pretend. And he's one of the most

vulnerable, wide open, honest people that, uh, you know, ever worked with in that way. And the way his, his heart is wide open in that way. It just, I, I love to like protect him. Yeah.

He's going to make me cry. Go ahead. Let him flow. Martin, what is, what does Will mean to you?

He's just my brother. You know, he's my brother for life. You know, I love him, love him to pieces, you know, and, uh, you know, I just love his heart. Um, I love the way he treats people. Um, I love his respect. Um, um, and he's just, uh, he's just a man. Yeah. He's a man.

Yeah. The man in deep.