Question: What’s your favorite aspect of acting?
Will Smith: I love the ability to use emotion to tell a story. The way that it’s so raw, and you can have a catharsis in a moment and then pull it back together. It’s very strange to be able to manipulate your emotions at will. And I’ve had an interesting time doing it with this character because he is so dark and disturbed. He has anger issues that are very different from mine. I’m a very happy person, and so finding his anger was an interesting challenge. But then being able to put it away, once the scene is over, is fun.
Question: Do you ever find yourself slipping into character offscreen?
Smith: No, because I can’t stand him! [laughs] He’s so angry all the time! I just don’t like him, so there’s no danger of me slipping into him offscreen.
The world premiere of Men in Black International is just a few days away, but before he suits up as Agent H, Will Smith sat down with his co-star Chris Hemsworth for an exciting new episode of Variety’s Actors on Actors.
During their interview, the pair discussed what it’s like to play the same character over multiple films and the prospect of reprising beloved roles in sequels. However, Smith also opened up about his favorite part of acting: “the relationship you build with the audience.”
“I think my favorite thing about acting is that moment when you get to connect,” Smith said. “When you get to connect with an audience and you see them feeling what you want them to feel.”
“You can be a great actor and never have that happen,” he added. “And I’ve experienced moments where it’s just not working and it’s not happening. But if you can get to that place where you are connected and they’re feeling what you want them to feel — that is like electricity.”
“I love that, being able to create a character in your mind and then be able to execute it, and that’s what I love about acting. And the thing with directing is you have so many people that you have to get on board with what you’re thinking. But if I’m acting, I just have to convince myself of the truth of it, and then I can execute it.”
Will Smith is an American actor and rapper. In April 2007, Newsweek called him “the most powerful actor in Hollywood”. Smith has been nominated for four Golden Globe Awards, two Academy Awards, and has won multiple Grammy Awards.
“My favorite aspect of acting is finding the truth within a character, what makes them tick. I look for something personal in the role that I can relate to. If I don’t find it then I pass because I won’t be able to do it justice.”
Will Smith is an American actor and rapper. He has enjoyed success in television, film, and music. In April 2007, Newsweek called him the most powerful actor in Hollywood. Smith has been nominated for four Golden Globe Awards, two Academy Awards, and has won multiple Grammy Awards.
In the late 1980s, Smith achieved modest fame as a rapper under the name The Fresh Prince. In 1990, his popularity increased dramatically when he starred in the popular television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The show ran for nearly six years (1990–1996) on NBC and has been syndicated consistently on various networks since then. In the mid-1990s, Smith moved from television to film, and ultimately starred in numerous blockbuster films. He is the only actor to have eight consecutive films gross over $100 million in the domestic box office as well as being the only man to have eight consecutive films in which he starred open at
I love the process of acting. I love working on a role and finding it. I just love the creative process.
I like to travel, but the traveling is very difficult for me. It’s hard for me to be away from my family. But when I’m on set, I just love it.
As an actor, you have to be able to figure out how to get into every different character and make them as real as possible, and that’s just fun for me—that process of trying to find something new in myself or something new in a character, or trying to bring forth some kind of emotion that you might not have access to in your own life—that’s fun for me.
In our continuing “Actors on Actors” series, presented by Amazon Fire TV, Variety’s Stuart Oldham sat down with Will Smith and Kevin Hart to discuss their new action-comedy “Focus.”
Hart: I think the most enjoyable part of it is just being able to work with somebody that you know that you can trust. And the trust factor comes into play when we’re doing scenes together, and I know that when I push Will, he’s going to push back. And if he pushes me off the building, I’m going to grab on to him.
Smith: That was my favorite part of this movie. Because we were pushing each other, but we were also pushing in the same direction. The same tone, the same commitment.
