A book full of Will (Smith)!
Celebrities coming up with novels is not something new but probably with lockdown imposed, we are getting more and more of it. Last year, we got Matthew McConaughey’s Greenlights, and this year it’s Will. Both were on pretty similar topics – their life stories – and both of them did a good job.
Smith describes his father in great detail and how he played a pivotal role in developing him as a child. Many of his habits are directly influenced by his father and how in turn, he influenced his son. We see a never before explored side of Will Smith and thanks to Mark Manson’s wordings, he expresses it beautifully.
Willard Carroll Smith Jr. was born and spent most of his childhood in Philadelphia in a middle-class family. He describes the struggles of his father, his family disputes, and being the only scared child in the 4 siblings – a fact he insists a great deal upon. His career – he says – is influenced by him being a wise-ass guy who pounced upon every opportunity to crack a joke. His being a center of attention coupled with some right jokes at the right moment made him popular in his group and it is this popularity that helped him gain success as a rapper. He describes in great detail how he turned out to be the first African-American rapper and hip-hop artist to win a Grammy with his friends DJ Jazzy Jeff and all of this before he even graduated.
But as every good story requires, Will Smith also had a downfall before he came into the film industry when he almost went broke and had to stay in Los Angeles at a friend’s house to avoid debts. It was here, at a party that he got an opportunity to audition for The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air which went on to become a very popular sitcom. He goes into great detail to describe his audition process – something which readers will surely enjoy.
His film journey was hugely successful as well with Box office smashing hits like Independence Day, Bad Boys and Men in Black and he writes how and what he learned when he made all of those blockbusters. Will Smith’s meeting with Nelson Mandela is also an interesting part of the book. His relations and personal life, the people he met and worked with, and all other elements, shaped him to be what he is today. All of this changes as he starts having his children and Smith writes he understood his father a lot better once he was a father himself.
The part where Will Smith met Mohammad Ali for making the movie Ali is a very motivating bit. His first encounter with Ali, his training to be like Ali and the things he learned during those training were incredible. I enjoyed that part of the book thoroughly.
Even though the book is the autobiography of Will Smith, the book feels too much of himself and is filled with prideful statements. His self-comparison with Jim Carrey and Tom Cruise or Robert Downey Jr feels condescending and ego boost. He writes that Jim Carrey became the first actor to get $20 million for a movie so “the conversation with me started at 21.”
The final part of the book consists of his time with his children as a father and him realizing that there is more to life than winning everything, yet it ends with Will Smith describing his jump from a helicopter in Grand Canyon on his 50th Birthday. The fact that he named the book after himself and released it just when his movie is going for Oscars in 2022, says a lot about it. It’s a good read for sure, but with a pinch of salt.
The following is a quote from his book which I liked
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