Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 5, 1994 TAG: 9401040167
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By KEVIN L. CARTER< KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Long
Six years ago, Will Smith complained on wax and compact disc that "Parents Just Don't Understand."
He's now the father of a 13-month-old son, Willard Smith III, known as Tre. Now that he's raising a youngster, does Smith understand?
"I don't have to," he said matter-of-factly, a sly grin creeping onto his face. "I'm the parent."
The second in a line of three Wills has quite a career going. His nascent film career got a big boost with the admiring reviews he has received for his portrayal of Paul, the sophisticated, troubled, gay con man in "Six Degrees of Separation."
His popular TV show, "Fresh Prince of Bel Air," is in its fourth season, with Smith's playful, smart-mouthed character finally out of high school and growing up a bit.
It is Smith's rap career - the career that launched his acting and won him and fellow Philly homie Jazzy Jeff Townes two Grammys and many dollars, which he spent (more on that later) - that is in the background right now. The duo's latest disc, "Code Red" (Jive), has garnered a lukewarm reception, although "I'm Looking for the One (to Be With Me)," their latest single, produced by Teddy Riley, is getting a bit of airplay. Nevertheless, the wholesome, middle-class rapper is adamant that he will continue rapping "until the people no longer want to hear my music."
And even if that comes to pass, he could force Tre to listen to his old tapes. And hear a youthful Will Smith bellyaching about the very things he finds himself doing today. "When I was growing up, I used to hate that my parents would lick their fingers and wipe something off of my face," said Smith, who still appears boyish in his baseball cap and Negro League jersey. "That was the most disgusting thing. You would be rushing to go to church and you would have some chocolate or something on the side of your face, and your mom licks her finger and wipes it off on your face. I used to hate that.
"Last Thanksgiving, my son was eating, we were feeding him, and he had something on the side of his face, dried up. My mom was sitting there, and I licked my finger. When it was 2 inches away from my son's face, my mother cracked up laughing. She said, `Welcome to the club, baby.' "
Smith cited his son as one reason he declined to perform a controversial scene in "Six Degrees" in which he was supposed to kiss a young gay man played by Anthony Michael Hall. He refused to do it, and director Fred Schepisi was forced to use a stand-in to near-kiss Hall's character. Smith's and Hall's faces were shown coming close and then moving away from each other, but a kiss was never shown.
"I don't have any problem acting like I kissed someone in a movie," said Smith. "But when it's actually a kiss, it takes on a different meaning. That was a little difficult for me. What was going on in my mind was, `What are my boys in Philly going to think about this?'
"I just had a new son. I didn't feel comfortable with there being a piece of tape that some kid could bring to school 15 years from now and say, `Your father kissed a man.' "
"It was basically immaturity. I was immature as an actor."
Smith said he was still not sure what he would do if he were placed in the same situation again - except that he would not rely on a stand-in or camera tricks. "I would do it one way or the other. Either I'm going to kiss him, or I ain't gonna kiss him at all."
He prepared meticulously for the role of Paul, Smith said, spending 18 weeks with an acting coach, a dialect coach and a physical trainer.
In the film, an adaptation by John Guare of his acclaimed reality-based 1990 play by the same title, Smith's Paul is a hustler who, with the help of a lover, invents himself as a cultured Harvard student who wins the hearts of rich, liberal Manhattanites and steals their trust and money. He pulls off this scam, in part, by claiming to be the son of Sidney Poitier.
It was a hard role for Smith to grasp: "This character is so drastically different from me, emotionally, morally and socially. He was so different from me that it was difficult to find those common grounds. I had to teach myself to think how this character thinks. The only thing I could really relate to was the work he had to do to change himself."
Smith said he would like to continue acting both in films and in "Fresh Prince." "Six Degrees" was his second movie; earlier this year he played Nia Long's school friend, the absurdly named Tea Cake, in the Ted Danson-Whoopi Goldberg comedy "Made in America." ("Hey, I just act. I don't make up the names," Smith said.)
"I enjoy doing TV. Television is the most fun. Music is the most rewarding. And film is the most interesting. So there are different aspects of my personality that are pleased doing different things."
The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, however, has grown up this season. He had to. It would be hard even for the youthful-looking 25-year-old to portray a high schooler. "It's almost a stretch now for me to play the Fresh Prince," Smith said.
So, the Fresh Prince character has gone on to college and is addressing issues Smith sees as important. "It's one of the few shows on television that the kids don't mind watching where you can get a good message," he said.
Last month, for instance, there was a strong anti-drunk-driving theme in one storyline.
"Generally, we try not to do that so blatantly, because it tends to turn people off. But that was something we felt was pretty serious. We tried to work it into the fun of the show."
His dispute with actress Janet Hubert-Whitten has been anything but fun. Hubert-Whitten, who played Smith's Aunt Vivian for the first three years, was fired this season and replaced by Daphne Maxwell-Reid.
Earlier this month, Hubert-Whitten sued Smith and NBC, saying he engineered her firing soon after she became pregnant last year.
Smith denies any involvement. "That's very much not true," he said. "I specifically made it a point to stay out of any dealings that had anything to do with . . . her relationship with the show. I refused to have anything to do with it, because I knew that she would hold me personally responsible for whatever happened."
He said he held no hard feelings toward the actress. "I just wish she would get on with her life," Smith said.
Although he maintains ties with his family here in town, he, unlike Jazzy Jeff who has a place on the Delaware River, maintains his primary residence in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, where he lives with his wife, Sheree, and their son.
He's doing well financially. But he'd be doing a lot better if he hadn't blown his first million dollars or so.
After his second album, 1989's "He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper," went double-platinum, and the cash started rolling in, Smith acted the big star: frequenting casinos (and losing), paying a huge entourage and splurging on cars and houses.
One day, he came to the realization that all that green was gone. "Having had money and houses and cars and all that, and then to lose them, makes you completely re-evaluate your existence. What did I do wrong? It makes you get spiritual. You wonder, `Did I treat somebody bad?' What did I do? That was a period in my life when I learned the most about myself. It made me better prepared to handle the situation I find myself in now.'
Personally and professionally, "I'm more in control than I've ever been."
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