Will Smith has done pretty well for himself, I’d say. An extremely successful TV and movie career that spans a few decades? Good going, dude. You’re rich! Life is good! But they can’t all be winners. Take his 2013 film After Earth, which starred Will and his crazy ass kid Jaden. That one sorta bombed at the box office, and its failure made Will nearly lost his damn mind.
From People:
“For me, this film really marks a transition in my life and emotionally and in my career,” Smith said Sunday during a press conference for Focus at The Four Seasons Hotel in Westlake Village, California.
“After the failure of After Earth, a thing got broken in my mind. I was like, ‘Oh, wow. I’m still alive. Oh, wow. Actually, I still am me, even though the movie didn’t open number one. Wait. I can still get hired on another movie.’ ”
“I realized that I still was a good person,” Smith, 46, said. “So when I went into Focus, I completely released the concept of goal orientation and got into path orientation. This moment, this second, these people, this interaction … It is a huge relief for me to not care whether or not Focus is number one or number 10 at the box office.”
Uh.. wow. I suppose Will’s story isn’t all that unique and I bet a bunch of Hollywood actors lose their minds when their films don’t do well – especially if you’re used to being super successful and are dealing with failure rarely. However, he needs to get a damn grip. Did After Earth‘s failure rally impact his life? He could still pay his bills (and the bills of half of California, I imagine), so he needs to chill.
After Earth just looked like it sucked, anyway. Can anyone confirm?
After Earth wasn’t BAD exactly, but it wasn’t good. You see that face Will is making up there? That’s pretty much him the whole movie. Doing the stone face angerball isn’t really his strength. Jaden Smith just furrows his tiny brow for two and a half hours. It could have been AMAZING, though, with different actors, the premise was cool. And the sets were good. I get what he’s saying, though, he was in some of the biggest blockbusters of all time, so there is that pressure. I would have thought that stupid movie with the train and the awesome Kevin Klein would have taught him that he won’t always knock it out of the park, though
Kline! Kevin Kline! Sorry Pheebs