Will Smith is getting real. The 53-year-old is set to drop a memoir, Will, and in anticipation, he sat down with GQ to discuss what fans can expect.
MARRIAGE
He told GQ that he didn’t delve too much into his marriage to Jada, as her “entanglement” with singer August Alsina, and some of their other ups and downs, have already been public.
“Jada never believed in conventional marriage.… Jada had family members that had an unconventional relationship,” Will says of his wife of 23 years. “So she grew up in a way that was very different than how I grew up. There were significant endless discussions about, what is relational perfection? What is the perfect way to interact as a couple? And for the large part of our relationship, monogamy was what we chose, not thinking of monogamy as the only relational perfection.”
He also admitted that Jada was not “the only one engaging in other sexual relationships” outside of their marriage.
RACE
Will also spoke out about his new project, Emancipation, and why he believes now is the right moment for it.
“The entire world was in lockdown, watched what happened to George Floyd, and stood up with one voice and said, We see it. We agree,” Smith said. “That’s never happened before and with that the opportunities are unlike they’ve ever been. I’ve been trying to get movies made for a long time. And the amount of money that Apple is paying to tell the story of Emancipation is unprecedented. And those opportunities are globally present and plentiful.”
“I just want to encourage Black Americans to take the acknowledgment and seize upon the present global opportunities,” Smith continued. “I would just like us to argue less about certain things and pay attention to the big ripe fruit.”
On political and racial issues brought up by Black Lives Matter, he said: “So ‘Abolish the police. Defund the police.’ I would love if we would just say ‘Defund the bad police.’ It’s almost like I want, as Black Americans, for us to change our marketing for the new position we’re in. So ‘critical race theory,’ just call it ‘truth theory.’ The pendulum is swinging in our direction beautifully. And there’s a certain humility that will most capitalize on the moment for the future of Black Americans, without discounting the difficulty and the pain and the emotion. This is a difficult area to discuss, but I feel like the simplicity of Black Lives Matter was perfect. Anybody who tries to debate Black Lives Matter looks ridiculous. So when I talk about the marketing of our ideas, Black Lives Matter was perfection.”
FAMILY ISSUES
Will also discussed his troubled childhood, where he saw his mother punched by his father when he was 9, and adding that it “has defined who I am today.”
He continued: “My father tormented me. And he was also one of the greatest men I’ve ever known. He was one of the greatest blessings of my life, and also one of my greatest sources of pain.”
Will is set to drop November 9th.
