Will Smith | Ep 162 | ALL THE SMOKE Full Episode | SHOWTIME Basketball

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Speaker 1: M hm m hm. Welcome back. I can't even say another addition to all the smokers. This is just not that. This is definitely not this is not that. I mean I think after this episode we might just need to retire our podcast. Not only that and just hanging up. Hey, yesterday's price, it's not today's man. We want to welcome to the show, man, I mean, what what what can we say? I mean, one of the biggest stars in the world has been you know, precious enough to give him a little bit of his time and sit down with us. Man, Welcome to the show. Will Smith. Well, we appreciate you, man, appreciate absolutely, very happy to be here. Thank you for I want to listen to your space and having some of your time UMS studios, Yeah, where we were. Yeah, just you know, I just I just wanted to, you know, bring you out, bring out. I'm only about fifteen minutes from you, so yeah, he came from Atlanta, so he's got that. But let's get to it. Um, you know, someone who's always lived their life in the public eye, Um had to sacrifice a lot. Obviously came with a lot. But I want to start with fatherhood. What are some stuff you can give fathers out there guys like us that have stenuous schedules, UM, but still being there for the important stuff and learning on the fly because there's no real book or rhyme or reason to this. Oh man, fatherhood. UM, you know that this this has been um, probably the the greatest period of my my fatherhood. UM. I was and and okay father uh for for my first son, UM, I got a little bit better with uh Jaden, I got my sea legs with with with Willow UM. And probably the last couple of years of my life I had sufficiently suffered enough to have real wisdom UM. And this last year with my kids has been the best parenting UM. If I had to, if I had to say something, UM to guide someone about it is first and foremost, everybody sucks at the beginning. It's okay, you know, yeah, right, It's it's okay to not be good at it. It's okay to make mistakes. And the best thing you can do for your kids is learn and grow yourself. Right when when we're trying to force our kids to do stuff and under understand things that we didn't do, that we didn't understand, they see the bullshit and they lose, they lose respect, and it's like, you know, I found a place with my kids where I could say I don't know, and let's let's figure it out together. Let's go find that out two together. But we're we're doing this as a team. It's not me telling you how to do some stuff that you can see I don't know how to do. We got a chance to watch the best shape of my life. Great peace, But again, your kind of nervousness when you had to tell the kids about how they are in the book. And obviously it was received and well and you guys laughed and you cry. But what kind of relief was that once you kind of got through with that sit that you said it was a four hour sit down and beautiful you. I was probably around that same um two year ago period UM. I decided I was going to examine my life UM and up until that point I never looked back because I knew if I look back that it would slow me down. So I was living in the future. I was trying to win. Nothing was gonna stop me today. And I was just driving, driving, driving towards the goals and the accomplishments of everything that I wanted to do in the material world. So probably about uh two years ago. UM, I guess I noticed a little bit of a lack in my ability to connect and love on a deep level, on a deep level, right, UM. I started noticing it with Willow. Willow was the one I was like dad. UM, And I noticed that I wasn't as proficient at connecting and and and loving somebody. I could provide, I can provide, I'll lay it out. But in those moments when my kids were reaching for me, UM, I was failing at the depth that they were seeking. UM. And I decided, like, what did that mean? And I felt that I had to deeply and truly examine my life. I had examined my motives. I wanted to be the biggest movie start in the worldwide right and I and when I decided to write my book, I decided to dig in to my life's experiences and UM. One of the one of the major things that I that I addressed with myself, uh was you know, my father had been abusive in my house and I never talked about it. And when I wrote the book, I told myself I was going to give myself the freedom to write it and purge and I went in and I did it, and it was the first time my mother and I had ever talked about it. I was fifty years old before I ever talked to my mother about the fact my father had beat her up. I drew a lot of similarities to that part when I was reading your book and then watching that show was you know my dad Marine three Dude Protector one and looked up to him, but at the same time he was abusing my mom. And at a young age, I felt similar to you, that helpless feeling, like I know, I can't whoop them, so you just gotta have to sit there and take it. How my mom passed to know seven from cancer, so I never got the chance to have that conversation. But just recently, like a month ago, I had a conversation with my dad, and at sixty seven years old, you know, for the first time, I had enough courage to say, like, Dad, I think you need some help. And I wrote him a long text message and I was kind of afraid how he was gonna respond, and he responded, Matthew, thank you, I didn't know you cared. I'll do whatever it takes to get better. And I was like, holy ship like that's not my dad's style. But you know, obviously preparing for this and watching your stuff, Like there was a lot of similarities from that standpoint. But what you were able to get that off your chest? How did that feel? You know? It just it Uh, it just opened up a lane for me and my mom too, like really have a relation to right. Um, for me as a little boy, you know, I've watched my father beat up my mother and I didn't do anything, and I processed that as being a coward, you know, And everything in my life was about not being a coward, you know. And you know my father also Air Force military, and you know, he trained a discipline into me that you know, I can manifest anything. I can do anything, you know. And there was that realization like I can do it anything, but you still didn't protect your mom. You lest you might beat up your mom and you didn't do nothing, you know, And it's like, um, you know, it's been a real process purging that and um forgiving myself for being a human, you know, And I hated it. I hated it. I'm human. I want to be Superman. Yeah, I mean I still battle that for a time. Like we're great now, I lost my mom and I felt like I gained the father. But there was times while I said and look at him like, motherfucker, I remember what you used to you know what I mean. But I still were still at the house, loving and hanging out and enjoying. But like you said, it's it's a us as the first and foremost forgive yourself. You can't do it for somebody else if you don't do it for you, right, And it's it's it is accepting and allowing and being okay that you're not You're not perfect, and you're not meant to be. You're meant to have your experiences and you learn and you grow along the way, and we're we're all chasing our higher selves and it's just gonna be, you know, most of the time, we're not gonna be that. We just saw the screening of Emancipation. Man, let me say this to you. Um, I'm always intrigued about what character you're gonna play and how it's gonna come out, but this was something that was unexpected by me. I knew you could play any character, but just seeing you playing Peter and learning this story, I learned a lot from watching this film. More than any film that I've ever watched, because we grow up, you know, they already don't tell us the truth in our history. But we grow up and see this picture and never know this guy's name, don't know his story, don't know nothing. So the fact that you took time to tell that story was something for me because all I can see was the picture on the whole movie. You know what I'm saying, and this is probably for me, is top three of your films. Thank you, brother. I appreciate that I went, I went, I went hard. Um at this one, Um, you know, it was clear it was, without question, the hardest film of my entire career. You know, we were out there at Yeah, it's it's Ali was really hard physically, dialect travel, but this one was without question, almost twice as hard as as Ali, you know. Um, and things kept going wrong right, So it was it was like the Ghosts of the Confederacy was like, y'all not getting this, this one, this one will never come out, this one will never come out. Right. So we we started. The movie was set in in Georgia, so we're set, We're ready to go. We're gonna start in Georgia. And then they passed those restrictive voting laws, and then me and Antine was like, ah, we can't make this movie right here, man. But it was like a couple of weeks before shooting and Antoine was like, brother, we can't and I was like, you're right. So we said it to Apple and to their credit, they didn't flinch. There was like, we can't make it there. So we had to reset the entire film and moved to Louisiana, which turned out to be a benefit because the movie actually took place in Louisiana, so we were able to do a lot of the actual locations. Bridge yes, absolutely, Okay, yeah, it was you know we longest bridges in Louisiana. Yes, absolutely drove that a whole lot of days. So um, so we get there where in Louisiana we set up. We got uh, you know, four hundred extras were starting in the Confederate prison camp, right, so it's four hundred extras. First day, get everybody geared up. We go out on the set. A little bit of a lightning strike and they and then the the rep comes out says, oh, in Louisiana, if lightning strikes near a set um within two miles mandatory thirty minutes shutdown. We're like, yeah, we didn't we read the five prints. So we had to move four hundred extras off the set. We had to wait to thirty minutes start bringing them back. Lightning strikes again, we have to take them back. We got one shot the first day. Then there was heat index. So if you had this is is you know the Louis You gotta readefined print on these contracts, right, So if it's a hundred degrees with extras on the set for more than like thirty five minutes, there's a heat in deck. So they counted as a hundred and twenty five degrees after a certain amount of time. At thirty minutes, everybody off the set. So we were two weeks behind. After one week, I was like, wait, what, how is that possible? Then two weeks later the hurricane hit tore up all the sets and then we had to move to baton Rouge. Antoine's trailer burned down, like burned down, but it was like literally every step of the way. Um. Then we had a COVID outbreak and it was mandated that all four hundred extras had to be tested before you could go on the set. So it was taken you know, five hours in the morning just to get everybody cleared before we could get a shot. We were at lunch, so you know. And again to to to Apple's credit, they never flinched. It was like, the world needs to see this movie. And you know, I will be shouting them out forever. For those who say, why another slave movie? What do you say to that, this is not another slave movie at all? Yeah? Story, Yeah, this is this is a freedom movie. You know, Um, this is a movie. You've just you've never seen this part of the story. Right, It's like we we don't know about the strength and the endurance, you know, very rarely Um as a black man when you watch a movie during this period, can you feel good about it? Peter, make you feel good about it? Jack stood up during it was just us and at the man, and there was there was a you know it is it's such a beautiful human story. Right. So I don't make movies about periods. I make movies about people, right, and it's about this is a this is a man that touched my heart. You know. It was what he sacrificed, like for us to be able to sit here, you know, It's like they refer to that image as the first viral image. It was like cameras were just invented, Like that was one of the first pictures actually taken with a camera. He took the lens off camera and it was like, um, you know what, all of those key Lloyd's scars on his back. He suffered for us to be free, you know. And when the was on the cover of British newspapers and Britain was right on the edge of entering the war on the side of the South, and his his image, his suffering is credited with Britain, you know, seeing the horrors of slavery and not entering the wars to support the South. There's so many other people like Peter that stories never gets old. They're probably was fighting that same fight. So I didn't make it as far as him, know what I'm saying, I probably have that many people. But there's so many people that probably went through that same situation that we would never hear about. There was did you notice the soldier in the battle scene? So there's a soldier the young soldier shot yes, yes, and the one the one he was saying, Mama. That was an ode to George Floyd that we had him saying Mama to George. I didn't get that at that time, but I definitely heard him, see he crawled over that to him. Yeah, so it was like, you know, Antoine Antwine was so so serious about um emancipation yesterday but emancipation today to day, right, And you know, I feel like that just gave me chills. You told me that. Yeah, I feel like everybody you know, it's not a black story, It's it's an American story. And my hope for for everyone who sees the movie is to be able to feel it and cultivate empathy. Right. It's it's easy to dismiss things when you don't have a visceral emotional attachment to it. Yeah, you know. And for me as as an artist at this point in my career, I don't want to do nothing that I can't say where I feel like it will be a contribution to the human family, you know, And I feel like this one it is it is And I guess I'm I'm not allowed to say this, but I'm saying it. For Antoine, it is an absolute masterpiece, right, It is a masterpiece of filmmaking. He you know, even the look of the film, and it's it's it's not black and white people of the blood. Yeah yeah, and the flag like certain things like Antoine says something cold he said, you know, it's like that. He says, I'm gonna drain the color out of the confederatecy I was with you felt it, Yeah, yeah, absolutely, you know, and it's it's like you know, it was. It was a it was a horrible time in American history. And when I make a film like this, I'm making it because I think it can be helpful. You know, I feel like being transported into that experience. It just answers a lot of questions. You know, it gives you a visceral emotional experience and just that one more click of understanding that can unlock that one more click of empathy. That part. As far as the overseer, he even showed everything could passion when telling that story. Yes, I'm wired this way because this is what I really felt sorry for I really That's why I was giving the food. Yes, but if I continue to feed her and she stopped feeding everybody else, but they're gonna come and pull you on you. So when I spoke with George Floyd, that's what I said at the press conference. I said, everybody's afraid that we're gonna turn around to do to y'all what I've been doing us for the last five homes. And that resonated to me, know what I mean that story because he actually felt that. I don't think he was saying that story to be a jerk like he was. He felt compassionate. In fact, I really want to help her. He loved me so wired to have and Ben Foster I credit, I credit um, Ben Foster with getting my head right going into this film. Um. So, the first day we're on Sad, things are going slow. So I'm standing up, you know, I'm holding court with the extras that I'm talking. I'm just trying to you know, I'm I'm a producer also some I'm on the set and I'm trying to get things together. And Ben Foster walks on set and doesn't speak to me. And he walks over and he goes into his tent. He didn't even go to his trailer. He was he was staying in his tent, his character's tent on the set, and he goes in and sits down. And for six months he didn't speak to me. He didn't make eye contact with me outside of a scene, right, And it was like he just he just wasn't playing with this material. It was like the material was important, the story was important, and he like he got me into into that mindset. Oh yeah, I was like, got it, got it? Not Ben, but what one of the other actors. Um, So we're doing a scene. We're doing a scene and he comes over and you know, he was one of the overseers and he says, uh, he says, you you know, you're cold one a g and ad libs a spit in my chest and I was like and I was like, no Will Smith here, No Will Smith here. I was like absolutely, And I was like I want to suffer that. And I was like, okay, no Will Smith. And I settled into that. And you know, I spent I spent uh six months, you know, getting called nigger two hundred times a day. I was really good. Actors say that too, said that to well, I was really good actors, man, you know, And it was it was like it was horrific. It was horrific, you know. Um, but I gotta cut. I got cut and I got to go over to my trailer. You know and all of that, and it was like, but just the the ends of human brutality is excruciating, dude, Like what we can do to each other, Like it's it is. It is insane. It's literally insane. And like being being um, being submerged in that um even being out there in you know, in that swamp, you know. And I was like, nope, We're not doing those stunt doubles. I'm gonna be in the swamp. I want to feel with Peter Felt. And you know, it was hard to turn that off though each night or after the film, or is there a lapse of time where you're still in the mode or um, yeah, it's it's uh, it's so I considered myself a good actor that knew how to go back and forth. I've been to the edges you know of that way. Um, I think I overst you know, I went a little bit too far with this one. I wasn't paying attention as as much and I think, you know, a little bit of it got stuck on me. Willow is my Willow can tell you know, Willows Daddy, you know, she like she can tell when I'm you know, slipping into that other place. But um, yeah, my I I went a little bit too far, but but it was I feel like, um, it got delivered on camera and a way that people can feel it, appreciate it. Absolutely. Emancipation will be, you know, on paced to be a huge contender for the Oscars. Nearly six months removed from your situation. What have you learned about yourself from that oscar night? That that was? That was a horrific night. That was That was a horrific night to you for me? Yeah, the real ones who understood I'm gonna stand up for my wife whether I'm right or wrong in any place. So I understood that I don't know what you say. Nobody can make me think that anything you did was wrong. Let me tell you one of the the the words because I was right there. And I get home and my nephew, uh nine years old. His name's Dom and he is the sweetest kid in the world, you know him. And my sister lived with me, and I'm sitting we got these bean bags in the kitchen. I'm sitting in the kitchen. He's sitting between my legs and he's holding the oscar and he goes, why you hit that man, Uncle Will? And I was like, oh, go to him, and it's like, you know, I'm gonna be crying. Somebody gotta tissue, um um, And it was I got one. I got one. And it was like, say, I knew y'all was gonna have me right good. You you can't explain it to him. He stayed up late right waiting for you, waiting for uncle, will you know. And it was like, you know, I can, I can do all the justifications for whatever. He won't understand. He can't, you know, talk about Philly. Philly spend most of my day. Philly were looking We're looking good on a lot of fronts and Philly. Yeah, yeah, you don't talk about I'm a cowboy fan. Let's not go too far. Yeah yeah, okay, yeah, and you definitely don't have that conversation. I don't. What was your upbringing like though, man, Yeah, it was Philly during that time, was um the seventies with you know, black folks in the middle class was moving on up, you know, so it was it was a really beautiful time. It was it was like rich with uh kids. It was you know in the neighborhood. You know, it was like just a really um beautiful family oriented a can of world. Yeah, not right exactly. You know. So you know when I say that the this was the greatest time of my adult life, it's because there was a time in my childhood that's the was the individual greatest time I've ever had, and it was my family driving cross country. My father shut the summer down and we drove a camper across country to family reunion in l A, then up back through the southern route back to Philly. And it was yeah, yeah, it was a from Texas. Yeah. Yeah, it's like it's Texas ever good, right, And the only thing, the only thing worse than that is the South and northern California. Yeah. Yeah, you go north South and California. You've been in California forever. I remember. I got a short story. I remember we did that. We drove from Texas, rent to RV. Never been outside of Texas, me and my family, my grandfather, yeah, your grandfather, and we drove Texas to San Diego. But this is why I remember the trip. So that drive you get bored, super boy. Yeah, So we stopped and you know, we was kids, So as soon as we stopped, I'm ready to run and do something. So I punched my cousin and take off running. He chases me. You ain't gonna cash me? Ran then into a tree. So for the next day and a half, I ain't got no skin on the side of I got, I'm briding. I'm looking like two phases on Batman on this side and I'm just sitting there like they say, God, don't guy, don't like us ran cleaning too that tree man? Is that how your nose got that? I was waiting on though, that's the first joke. I don't know what took him that long. You don't take him now, yeah, because we're here with you. Because if you don't, don't take him down. It's the Slavery movie and the oscars. Now we're back. Oh man, Basketball movies growing up? Was one of your favorite movies? Basketball movie? Basketball growing I know you're hooper, Yeah, what was it? What's the one? What's the basketball movie? Yeah? I was like, what was the basketball movie? Who's your back there? That's probably the only one. The Fish, that same pit spurg Dock believe, Yeah, yeah, Fish, the Saint Pittsburgh. That's right. Yeoh, that's my dude. When did you fall in love with the sport? Um? It was really the only I wasn't I wasn't never good, but it was the only thing athletic I could do, Like my my world. Talk about it a lot your whole career. You gotta stink. Yeah, no, no, because fresh Prince you just had academy he was down to eight and a half foot dunk people. Yeah. Shoot, Oh you didn't say if I could act like I go. Shoot yeah, shoot, you give me the right camera, man, I'll take both for y'all. Dad, the right camera, right cameraman. Shoot, I let me looking hard being from Philly. What did it mean to you to be able to now be a part owner of the seventies sixers. Yeah? People don't know that. Yeah, because every time the season starts, I've been working like cat to the game. Yeah, it's like we got one like crossed. I was shooting bad Boys in Miami and the team was playing in Miami. I was like, okay, okay, I haven't been like I literally been to like four games, you know, so I'm selling my city out real bad um. But dude, that first time, remember the first time that I walked in to the arena and the hometown fans knew that I was you know, oh my god. Where there's nothing like walking into your hometown arena. And that's a tough crowding there. Yeah, tough crowding there. Yeah, Philly is a tough crowd Philly. Philly is generally good to Philadelphians. It's just if you you come from outside, you know, it can it can get bad. I got a chance to play with Aither they walked on he walked on water. Yeah. Absolutely, it's like a I and Philly. You know, he could part anywhere and did. Yeah. You sports fans, Philly sports fans like if you they just need you to work hard. You work hard, they love Yeah. When did music come into the picture for you? Twelve years old, I started writing rhymes and that was just after the rappers Delight. Rappers Delight hit. It was over for me, Like it was it was like God telling me that's what I needed to do, you know, And I heard that and it was it was I just knew, you know, and you know, I don't I don't know if it's the same thing with with athletics, but just you had that first time and you just know it's like I just love it. I love it. This is what I want to do. It's like I found I found my power in words, you know, I found there the uh, just the essence of who I am in in hip hop. How instrumental was jazzy Jeff? For you? You said you've never met someone who worked harder than you. He showed you. He set the bar. Yeah, Jeff is Jeff is a musical genius, right, Jeff the references that he can call them, the things that he understands about music. I knew how to rhyme, but Jeff knew how to make records. Right. Jeff had like, uh ten thousand records in his basement, and he had he came from a musical family, and uh, Jeff had he had cancer when he was young, so his mom he couldn't go outside, so he lived in that basement with those records. I don't even know what cancer was back then. Yeah, yeah it was. It was like it was funny. Yeah it is. It's interesting. Yeah, it seems I guess just being young, I just had no idea you know what that was. It was much more of an adult understanding. But yeah, he was. He was sick for a couple of years and and uh beat it. And but his whole time was in that basement with records, and that became the world he disappeared into. So you're on tour now as a as a late team with Public Enemy and To Life. Dude, what was that? It's crazy. I just did adjust to that. But that's how hip hop was back then. Just like you could put all the different crews on one show. So it was it was Jazzy Jeffer, the Fresh Prince, Public Enemy and To Live crew. And I talked about it in the book about us going through the South, right, So in the South they had morality laws, right, so they would meet with us ahead of time, and you know, the local sheriff would come and meet with all the groups and they would say, hey, you know, we know what you did and making Georgia the other night. Just just don't think you're gonna do that in mobile, right. And so here's the if you perform this in your show, if you perform that in your show, you will be pulled off stage, right, Um and Chuck d Public Enemy had a piece where they would hang a Klansman on stage as a part of every show show and Luke Skywalker would be naked. Everybody I was like, I was like officers sir, you don't need to say nothing to us. But I promise you, Chuck and say plans man tonight. And I promise you Lucas go ahead for the first course. Yea. And sometimes they got arrested they know him sell out the next show. Yeah, and that's yeah, that's what Jack, you know, Chuck was Chuck was saying, they they were really aggressive on the first part of the tour, and Chuck said, as we started to move under the tour and I never know, he said, he started feeling like he was putting everybody in in jeopardy. So he started picking the cities where they would do it. But Luke would get Luke was having to do every other show because he'd be in jail for one miss one, so he would he would do the Tuesday night show, he would miss Wedsday because he was in jail, and he'd be back on Thursday. I laughed. I laughed out loud when he were it was obviously in your head, but you're like, officer, I agree, you don't have to tell me my mom and I already, but it was like on on that tour, it's like those dudes, we're genius. Chuck would show up with activists. He would have lawyers and activists with him to meet with the sheriff's. Luke realized they were there were FCC laws. When he was in Miami, he realized they were FCC laws to the ocean, and so he got a boat and put his radio station on the boat because there was like maritime law. So now he's an international water So then he could said, I was like business, you know, and it was like being that was really like our first tour and just seeing the level of intellect that these dudes were using to you know, get their get their music out in the world. And we we just wanted to like party and meet girls, and it was like they were they were doing something else, next level. Russell Simmons, it took him a second to get to you, but once he got to you, how instrumental was he and and kind of just opening doors and expanding your guys as opportunities. Yeah, Russell Russell was Russell was you know, single handedly directing hip culture, you know, and culture during that time. UM and Russell was our manager. UM And I remember I didn't I didn't talk about this in the book, but when I when when I knew I loved Russell, so we signed for management. So Russell and Lee or Cohen had our management. So a couple of you know, a couple of years went by. Things were going well, and it was right before Fresh Prince and I had contracts that wouldn't allow me to do Fresh Prince. So I go to I go to Russell, and I was like, you know, because my rushed contract stated that I had a certain amount of torent whatever it was, so I said, you know. I went in and I was like, I was like, you know, Russell, you are you you holding me back? And it's like you call yourself an artist manager and you don't know shit about artists. And I have a dream and I have a vision for who I want to be and your mind is so small that you can't write blah blah blah. I'm giving him all of that. And Russell's sister and he looks at me and his eyes welled up with tears, and I was like, oh, and he said it was like it wasn't I wasn't expected. His eyes welled up with tears, and he said, you really think I'm holding you back? And I was like I had I had like committed so I had to double down. It was like absolutely, and he paused and he looked over at his lawyer. He said, let him go. You're free today. And I was like, oh, and let me out of the contract literally with nothing, no strings attached, nothing, you know. He could at taxed me on Fresh prints and movies and a note clean let me go that day. And I was like, I love that, dude, that somebody want to see you win. Yeah. Absolutely, And it was like it was a deep offense to him that an artist felt like he was holding him back. He's so committed to, like his whole life is helping artists, you know, achieved their visions. Six seasons of The Fresh Prince. Do you feel like during that time you kind of really honed into who you were as an actor. Yeah. I think one of the best things that ever happened, uh to me in terms of acting was James Avery. That Yeah, James Avery. He he was like nothing was good enough. He was like, Nope, you have too much talent for that. Noe more nope. And it was like I'm doing movies and I'm trying to you know, And it was like he made sure that I understood my responsibility to hone my crab aft as a gift to the world. You know. He was like, no, you're you're you've been You've been gifted too much to play with, right, And he just kept pushing me. He kept pushing me. He watched everything I did, he commented, he would give me notes on everything. And you know, yeah, I talked. I talked about that in the book too, that the uh the father sing. The Father sing was the first time and uh, you know, we had the moment we were doing the scene and you know, I was I was blowing my lines. I couldn't get it together. And at the end of that father see James agree is hugging me and he whispers. He whispered in my ear. Now that's acting right, And I'm I wanna jump in front of you real quick. You guys had every beautiful I mean, there was going to be something come through that show. Let that happens. Every single one came through that shows. It's too much power for one minute. Man. Every I looked when you when you you kept three runs these days ago, just say yore, yeah, And it's like it wasn't on It wasn't like on purpose, but it was like it's the hot show and it's you know, one of the handful of black shows on and so everybody was unbelievable was coming through on on Fresh Prints. It was it was thank god I was married. I would have ruined my life for quick. I would have ruined my life for sure if I wasn't married. I knew that. I knew that young too. I knew that young too, that each episode all place. Sorry, sorry, sorry, my bad. Yeah. My father, my father was My father was hardcore. I had done something. Uh. He gave me the great the greatest quote, and he was he was furious. I was had girls at work and stuff like that, and he just screamed at me, keep your dick out in people's money. That's a bar. That's a bar. I was like, Yo, I kind of touched my soulf ship. It was as daddy, Yo, Daddy kept it. I'm just thinking right now, I know a couple of bucks and need to do that. Yeah, I changed I changed it for my kids. There was the right idea. I tell my kids, no fishing off the company. Pier. Did you know what she was doing for the culture doing a fresh Prince When you were showing up with the fresh Jay's No, I know you didn't no idea. It's like I was. I was living the culture, right. You were the coach right at that time I was. I was literally calling Jordan's and I was like, Mike, please, please don't give it to nobody, Like, just let me be the first person. I gotta be the first person to where. He was like, man, I don't run that. He was like the fours where the fresh Princess. They called the four as the fresh Princess. There's the fives now they did that. I hadn't seen ione. Yeah, have fresh sport, fresh prince fivesop. That's crazy. You had to sit down with Aunt Viv. Yes, and I had a chance to watch that. How how important was that for you? Man? So I made a tissue out. I feel it coming out. I feel it now. I would be mature, I would be I feel it, I feel it coming out. I um. Now that I said thank you, that's that's bad. I camp be on all the smoke mean no, and we get in touch with I desperately want to be a good person, Like I desperately I want to be valuable, you know, And I didn't I didn't understand how deeply I was offending her. I just I didn't even comprehend how um, you know, I had I hadn't had kids myself. My son was born, you know, during during the Fresh Prince, but the comprehension of when a when a woman is pregnant, the level of sensitivity and difficulty and Janet, Janet had a difficult pregnancy and all of that. And I'm in my next room banging to music right well on set, and it was it was Unconsciousness is a terrible enemy. And I just didn't know. I didn't know. Um, I love Janet Man and it was like I wanted her respect, Like she's a you know, stayed trained actress, singer, dancer, super talent, right, and I wanted her respect. I wanted her to think I was great, and during that time, she didn't and I had a negative reaction to that. Um. So it was really important to me, you know, after I started doing my work, I started, you know, trying to understand myself and understand how I'm interacting with people. And once I saw clearly my offenses, I just I needed it, desperately needed to clear them up. And Janet was you know, wide open, and you know, it was it was rough phrase it was. It was rough and wrong, you know, but it's like, that's what I want to be, man, that's I don't want to be beefing with people. But like you said, nobody's perfect, and I think too often we let ship slide that we're wrong about and not say anything right. So I think that's big switching gears Bad Boys the franchise. I know you got number you got number four coming up, and just talked to Marty. I just talked to Martyr. This kind of thinks he's an actor. But for the new Bad Boys charge you. You've got to be here on this segment where the idea Bad Boys come from. Martin actually had the script for the first one and Martin brought me in. Okay, right, so um yeah, they wanted him to do it with Eddie and you know, Martin's sister was like, you should do that with Will and you know Martin, Martin called me and uh, you know, we said there. We had one meeting and you know, the script wasn't the script wasn't together. It was originally for Dana Carvey and John Lovitts. They were the original Bad Boys. That would have been a very different movie. It was Dana Carvey and John Lovits and they fell out, and then Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson brought it to Martin and then Martin said, I won't do it without will, so he brought me in and yeah, and it was, you know, the script, script wasn't all the way there, but I think what happens because we were both on television shows, right, so we were used to making the stuff up on the fly. Anyway. He had his group of writers. I had my group of writers. We had our boys, and we came together and we were literally making the scenes day to day as we were going on. We had he had his squad, I had my squad. We would come, we would do it. We was writing the stuff, but you know, on the set and then try and do that. And it was it was, you know, one of the greatest friendships I've ever had in the business. Oh my god, I only imagine I'm gonna tell a story I've never told. Love it, love it, love it, so please. Martin was newly married, so he was like, He's like, well, you know, in Miami, it was like I'm not I'm not doing nothing. I'm not doing nothing. So this is the first first one, the first one newly married. He was like, dude, I just don't. It's like I was like, Marty, ma, you got it. He was like no, no, no, I was like, dude, it's like we gotta go. It's like for the culture. They know, like we're the bad boys, like they know. It's like life. Yes, it's like come on man. Right, So Prince had a club called Glam Slam. Glam Lam Slam. Prince had a club in Miami, right, yeah, so you can imagine what a Prince club was like. So everywhere everything swayed. You gotta have nice hair to get in with. You see what I can do. So get Martin. It was like Martin, come on, Prince got this is he Come on, Martin, come on. He was like all right. So we go and Martin is literally sitting there with his and he's sitting there and it's it's wild, like I've never seen nothing like this club. Right. So we're sitting there and there's a there's a balcony that looks over onto the dance floor. So we're up in the bout and the v I P. We're sitting there, Martin sitting and there's like like girls like you just can't, you know, even in Miami, you know, right, So the girl walks up and stands in front of Martin and she's standing there and she's dancing in front of Martin and he's like, come on, and she lifts her skirt up and she has nothing on under and she's asking Martin if she wants to have sex in the club. And I look at Martin, He's like this, why don't go right on the door? He rut there and I have never been out of girl, never been out of you still might be in there. Maybe I'm not coming home. Yeah, take care. How was it playing Muhammad Ali? And that was one of the greatest things I ever did in my life. You got to understand when you're playing somebody that's great like that, when you play these roles, see what happened, Neils, there's a part of you that has always changed. Man, when you when you spend some time with a character like that, there's a part of you that's always changed. You'll be the same. So there's a little piece of Alid that's in me for the rest of my life, right, you know, you know what, it's only one person I was able to do. Jamie yeah, yeah, Jamie. Jamie had us roll before we even started. We couldn't even stop laughing. Face heard our stomach. Kurt Oh, I'm sure that was fun, Jamie King Richard, How important you like that role was to be brought to life, Like those kinds of stories where you think you know the story. I love those where you think you know, but you don't really know, you know, and you know he had been so vilified and villainized. And I remember the first time talking with Venus and Serena, and it was like so much love. They love that man, and I was it was it didn't fit the image of what I have, you know, of the overbearing father that demands his kids. And he didn't. He didn't do that. And Venus referred to it as the Jedi mind trick. She says, somehow he convinced us that we wanted to play tennis. They had to beg him. She was like he had done something where their punishment was they couldn't play tennis right, And she said to the point that one time Serena, Serena got in trouble and she couldn't play, and she went in her room and baled a sock up and put rubber bands around it and was hitting it against the wall in in her bedroom and somehow he inspired them to play, not demanded that they they play, And it just changed everything about their um, their relationship. And you know, my mother had met him and she was telling me how hilarious he was before I before I did the film, and it was just not the image that I had of him, you know. So, UM, I loved being able to set the record straight um about Richard Williams. Yeah, he was. He was a really um unique teacher and advocate for those girls, well quick hitters. First thing to come to mind, let us know, if you had to pick, if you had to pick, I'll give you two, two movies, your two favorite roles you've been able to do thus far. Number one is definitely Pursued the Happiness. That's his favorite movie. Yeah, Pursue the Happiness. It's like that's just one of the ones where everything just came together beautifully. Yeah, with my son dude in that bathroom, with my actual will Sun Yeah, never forget that moment. Pursued Pursuit of Happiness. I think it's like the best all around movie I've ever made. It beautiful, right, Um, yeah, and there's other ones I like for different for different reasons. Yeah, yeah, we just did. Yeah, I think that. I think that's that's I'm I'm pursuit of happiness and King Richard was pretty back to back nights at my joint, both nights just Wills over here killing issues being a hip hop head. What three artists are in? You're playing this right now? Three? What three artists? Mathum by the way, I got a plan the Manthain by the way to We're yeah. So yeah, because I remember you did you did that? It's platinum? Is it is it? Is it old school platinum or is this new school platinum where they give you for for a million? Straight up? Like that means yeah, this was time I'm in. I'm not I'm not a rapper up. I just did it for joy I know, I mean I get that guy. I mean because I sold like a million c D no no question, hard copy. People had to go buy a hard copy to the store. Three million, put money the team you kind of okay, I'll give it to I mean it is platin, I'm it's it's plack. That's did but not how I did it? I got songs big uh man, in my place. It's all right. So I just did a thing with Jaden and I just put together the old school playlist of people that I wanted him to listen to and rock Him was first, right, So rock Him was the first one in there. Um. Yeah, it's like for him to just see where we've been, to feel feel where we're going. So I literally just made that playlist. Um, I think Mel's verse melling melt on um on the message. I put that in there for him. Um, you went way back on that. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's really original. That's like that shaped me. Um, and I put together some of the old school tapes for back to that's the cast Cold Crushed Brothers. Uh. That literally just made that that playlist. But looking at your son from the outside, and I never met and I don't know him, but he gonna dig rock him, Yeah, oh for sure, because it's the substance and love that he loves that. When I say first was it is it rapper hip hop artists to win a Grammy. I'm not sure the proper title, but yeah, first either one first, the first, it's the first of both. However, our platinums are but how does they get it? Yeah, you know first, you know, when you look back on that, you know and and and kind of see what the music is now. But to think you were the first to to earn a Grammy, what does that mean to you? Yo? It's crazy. I was just talking to Chuck D. Right, So, Um, the NARIS, the Grammy organization, decided not to televise the category and we boycott, so all of the rappers boycott it, and so we had a boycott party. I was just talking to Chuck D. Chuck D had the line, who gives a funk about a goddamn Grammy? Right, And I was standing next to Chuck D when they announced the winner. I do kind of kind of uh, five dinner guests that are alive? Oh wow, Nelson Mandela first and foremost. Um, five dinner guests, all right, so I would definitely want to sit with Nelson Mandela, Um loud su m hm um. I guess his translator would have to come to that would take a seat. Um, Maya Angelou. I never really got to talk to her. Yeah, Will Diving Yeah, Um, George orwell, um, trying to keep the room interesting. Um that's four right. Um, let me see Mandela. I gotta see. This has to be a good one. Let me say, let me see my angel to look him. Look at Crime and Punishment. He wrote Crime and Punishment. I just read Crime and Punishment and the The Underground Man and like he had something. He had something really interesting and I would only want him to uh debate Mandela some dinner conversation. Yeah, if you could see one guest on our show, who would it be? But you have to help help you get your answer on this show. Absolutely for sure. Now I'm there, I'm there. Have you had Denzel oh ship shut the front door? Absolutely not? Yeah? Yeah, Denzel is a real one, is a real one? Yeah yeah, Denzel Denzel. Uh, he grabbed me out these last six months. I love Denzel. So when you leaned up, he's real. Real, Danzel is real real. I love to hear that. Man. We appreciate your time and just really want to tell you, man, we love you when we appreciate you, how important you are to our culture, how important you are to just the movement there. Yeah, ain't going, I'm on it. We appreciate recharged and ready, Yes, yes, is this we got a little gear. He got some gear for you. We're where can they find that a jack all the Smoke dot store, the store fresh geary that was especially designed just for you. Nobody's going to have that one fresh gear And we know you like gear like that. It's one that Okay, okay, but why are you opening the gear? We can announce that. You know, I'm doing my We're doing my dock here. Oh that's right. Absolutely, Yeah, we're working together. It's family. It's our family now. Yeah, it's our family now. Appreciation. And Ellen right here to my right has been trying to get me you get like five years now. So I'm glad we finally did. But again, man, we thank you for your time. We wish you the best. And man, this is you might not see all the smoke no more? Might yea yesterday's price? Yeah you know what, you're casting some showtime basketball YouTube and the hard platform black effects. We'll see y'all. We might not see a'all that, yeah,