Jeddah: Will Smith alluded to his recent troubles during an event for the Red Sea Film Festival, taking place in Saudi Arabia on Saturday. He spoke about topics including the starting point of his career, fame, and future projects.
Telling the festival’s “In Conversation” host how he had initially expected to follow a career in science, the star laughed with the audience at his inadvertent mention of problems.
WATCH: Red Sea Film Festival: Will Smith In Conversation
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“I love figuring things out. Like, I love puzzles. I love problems. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so I started making my own problems. Yeah. You know, ‘life is going too good I need some problems,’ you know?”
Talking about the value to emerging talent of having a mentor to advise and guide, Smith added “You know, you’re going to make mistakes. You know, I’ve made tons of my own mistakes.”
After a brief interruption by a supportive audience member he continued, “We all make mistakes, baby! But it’s really to have somebody to call is huge. Everybody doesn’t have somebody to call. And I have been blessed that I’ve always had somebody to call that was willing to help.”
Becoming more serious, Smith described fame as “a unique monster.”
“You can’t get excited when everybody is saying good things about you, because the more you take when people are saying good things about you, the more hurt you’re going to be when people are saying bad things about you. Right? You know what I what I’ve experienced, you know, in the – my adversities of the last couple of years is I have to be clear about who I am and what I am attempting to do in the world.”
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“I want you to feel good. I am here because in my deepest heart, I want you to feel good, you know? And at the same time, I am deeply human and my virtue is not yet perfected. And I am in the process of perfecting my virtue,” he told the audience.
“I would say the greatest thing that has happened is, I have been deeply humbled and deeply inspired to perfect my light. And that’s what this next phase of my life is going to be. Perfecting and shining my light as brightly as I can on as many people as I can.”
The star also confirmed he is making “I Am Legend 2,” with Michael B. Jordan – returning to the post-apocalyptic story despite the death of his character at the end of the 2007 original.
“in the first one, in the, in the theatrical version, my character died and everybody’s like, well, wait a minute, how is he going to make a part two, if his character -? But on the DVD, there was an alternate version of the ending of the movie where my character lived. So we’re going with the mythology of the DVD version where my character lived. And I can’t tell you, I can’t tell you any more. But Michael B Jordan is in and we’re, we’re doing it. Yeah.”
The Red Sea International Film Festival runs through 9th December.
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