EXPLORING DEATH, LOVE AND TIME
Will Smith’s new movie takes a hard look at suffering
Will Smith didn’t expect his movie about love and loss would help him get through his father’s death.
But Collateral Beauty did just that.
Willard Carroll Smith Sr., died in early November, but lived four months after his terminal diagnosis allowing both father and son to reconnect.
“My father was diagnosed with cancer and he was given only six weeks during the process of working on the film,” says Smith, 48, promoting Collateral Beauty.
In the David Frankel-directed dramatic fantasy, the actor plays Manhattan advertising executive Howard who has disconnected from those around him as he tries to mourn his daughter’s death.
During his ordeal, Howard ends up having conversations with the human forms of Death (Helen Mirren), Love (Keira Knightley) and Time (Jacob Latimore) after writing each scolding letters.
In the end, Smith’s Collateral Beauty research into the grieving process allowed him to share his newly discovered information with his father during some emotional times.
“Everything that you possibly do to deal with the inevitable pain of death, I was able to do as Howard, but I was also able to share and work on that with my father,” Smith says.
“This movie and these ideas have changed me forever. It’s the ultimate human difficulty. How do you deal with death and loss? It was the perfect life/art confluence.”
Both Howard, and the actor, discovered that there were no easy solutions to overcoming the despair that arrives with losing somebody close to you.
“What (Howard) realizes is he has to bleed,” says Smith. “He has to suffer. He has to mourn. He has to let it go ...”
Not surprisingly, Smith initially had a more pragmatic view of the script written by Allan Loeb.
Before his father’s diagnosis, he thought of the story as a Christmas tale of crisis among friends, colleagues and families trying to carry on despite the hardships.
In fact, he associated Collateral Beauty with classic films like It’s a Wonderful Life that are part fantasy but still reflect “things that are deeply and powerfully real and human.”
Back then, the love theme in the movie had a bigger impact.
“And I am a serious, hopeless romantic,” Smith says. “I think the greatest experience of love I’ve ever had, was when my daughter (Willow) was born. I took Willow and I sat her down with Jada, and just looking at the two of them, that was as full (of love) as I ever have been ...”
“It was the safest and purest and happiest that I’ve ever been in my life, and I think subconsciously, I chase that every day of my life.”
Coincidentally, Willow was part of Smith’s time dilemma, too.
“My daughter just turned 16, so I watched my 16-year-old daughter drive away from the house with her driver’s licence,” he says.
It forced him take stock and remind him he’s been an entertainer in the spotlight for 30 years since releasing his first hip-hop record in1986 as The Fresh Prince (with DJ Jazzy Jeff ).
His Fresh Prince of Bel Air TV show followed. So did his film career. In fact, Smith has gone full film circle. He’s reuniting with Martin Lawrence for the third and fourth Bad Boys movies. It was 1995’s Bad Boys that kick started his movie phase.
“But the things that I think about and how I live on a daily basis are a little more complex now than The Fresh Prince,” Smith says.
Certainly, he’s motivated by a different set of standards.
“I just want to be able to courageously go forward to find those new things and deliver those new ideas,” he says.