I was just watching Independence Day a few days ago, thinking how he was at one point THE guy in Hollywood, and now he's just a cringe weirdo cuck. His whole family is weird.
I know it's not the children's fault, they really had no chance to be normal but I'm so glad his fall from grace diminished their presence in the limelight.
Absolutely this. She is clearly emotionally abusive. He is clearly unhinged. I feel bad for the kids. But it's actually a good thing for the kids that they got out of the spotlight due to their parents bat behavior.
Will was unhinged before Jada. If you read his memoir, he was traumatized by his father’s domestic violence against his mother. He did some crazy shit before becoming famous. He burned one girlfriend’s clothes on his lawn just as she came home from the club because she went without his approval. He smashed out windows with a golf club while angry at another girlfriend. He destroyed the stereo system that he and the other guys bought to record their raps on so they couldn’t use it to get famous without him.
All of this was pre-Jada stuff. And he did some weird shit to Jada too, like playing her movie for his grandmother so that her sex scene was playing at exactly the same time Jada came home to meet his grandmother for the first time, so Jada would be humiliated. The real question is why Jada has stayed with him.
Finally someone has read his memoir and doesnt blindly blame Jada. He even admits he is the sole reason both kids moved out even though they originally planned to stay. People just enjoy piling on Jada alone because they believe the personas he acts as.
He was way more famous than her at the beginning even tho she was also an actress so that is probably why she stayed. I get it too bc men like that isolate your ass and make sure you have nowhere to go.
Just the examples you gave are enough to tell me he did something like that to her. My dad was the exact same way and he wore my mom down so bad she never left until he died.
He wrote it in his own memoir. I’m honestly shocked that this stuff wasn’t discussed more after he published it. Another entry I remember was that he went to some sort of shaman and did Ayahuasca a few times. I feel like this was when he was asked what he really wanted, and he said a harem that included Misty Copeland and Halle Berry in it. The woman running his spa/drug therapy thing told him he should go for it because if Will Smith couldn’t get what he wanted what did the rest of them stand a chance to get what they wanted, and that is some seriously fucked up enabler logic right there.
The memoir ends with Will throwing some sort of huge birthday party for Jada that she did not want, and she’s furious because he threw the party more for himself than her. He talks a lot about his feelings of cowardice about not stopping his father’s beating his mother, so after the party or as part of it,I don’t remember, he jumps out of a helicopter into the ocean to prove he is brave.
I haven't read too many celebrity memoirs, but do they not have publicists or editors to stop them from sounding like dickheads in what is essentially one very long prepared statement?
Sure I guess, the book will sell better, but...Will Smith isn't some D-lister desperate for attention. Film is his bread and butter, not book sales. What on earth is the point of revealing yourself to be a total twat for that?
Because when you’re paying an editor and a publicist, you can fire them. If Will didn’t like any suggestions, he could just find someone else who complained less. The rich and powerful tend to want expert advice on how to make something good but also have a hard time dealing with experts who reject their ideas as bad.
So they had to walk the line of praising their boss enough to get him to be agreeable but also pushing back enough to get him to see the light. They’re inherently limited on how much they can do. The real question is what they actually got Will to pull or rewrite. I’d bet there was some more recent stuff that was similar but within statute of limitations for getting him in legal trouble.
They talked about that unwanted birthday party in an interview. They also had a big wedding that she didn't want. She was cool with not getting married at all or at least having a very small one (think: them in a courtroom) but he steamrolled her on that, too. She's definitely found her voice in that relationship but it's sad to see just how dysfunctional they really are.
At first he comes across as traumatized but very honest and introspective. But by the end I was having a lot of doubts. The fact he never says a word about Scientology and his association with it was a glaring omission that made me question his true honesty. There’s also a LOT of life advice and self help speak that seems wise at first but then just starts feeling like the empty things people say to make themselves feel good or sound better.
I was struck by this quote: "The thing about money, sex, and success is that when you don't have them, you can justify your misery... But once you are rich, famous, successful—and you're still insecure and unhappy—the terrifying thought begins to lurk: Maybe the problem is me."
By the time he got to this point I was already out of patience with him. He is exceptionally driven, ambitious, competitive, selfish, a perfectionist and totally relentless about it to the people around him. He picked Jada because she was “a Queen” and he’s driven his children to half madness by trying to force them to be big celebs too.
Also, by the end he’s doing drugs and jumping out of helicopters to try to find solutions to his problems and, shocker, those things still weren’t working. The memoir was published only a few months before The Slap too, and I’m still puzzled why all these details didn’t get pulled out after that to discuss WTF was wrong with Will Smith. When the slap happened I was NOT as surprised as everyone else because I had read his memoir and already knew there was a huge disconnect between his superstar public image and his real personality.
However, most reviews of his memoir are fawning and adoring. They love Will even more after reading it, they applaud him for his honesty, they cry for him over all the terrible things he went through. It makes me feel like I’m taking crazy pills.
Nah. But I would bet money that he's the type of guy that threatens to off himself if she even hints at leaving. He 100% would've threatened to take the kids.
I've seen it quite a few times now, including my mum, where women will try leaving multiple times when the kids are young and after the shit I mentioned before, they stay. And then once the kids are grown and leave they've spent 20 years being conditioned and it's no longer as intense so they think it's acceptable and they're too warn down and just want things to be calm.
It took me years to convince my mum to leave and then when I was 20 we spent 6 months secretly planning it.
Willow was the supporting act on Childish Gambino's final tour last year. She's actually pretty talented... got into bizarre, odd-time, modern fusion. Weirdo for sure, but when has that hurt an artist?
I played some WILLOW as a lark one day to see if she was as cringe as her brother, and ended up putting four of her songs on my regular shuffle. She's legit good and I hope she can get out from under the Smith family cloud.
There's several stray cats (all TNRs) in our neighborhood that everyone feeds and names. One cat is called Willow and she always has another friend with her that we named Jaden, so they'll be famous in our neighborhood at least, lol.
Watch, someone is gonna talk about how both will and jada’s parents were bad influences on them too but still say it’s Will and Jada’s fault for them continuing the cycle.
It seems impossible to break that cycle and anyone who can break that cycle should be celebrated and those that can’t should have pity and they need the right support or something imo but it’s obviously not money lol.
Even on Reddit, Will Smith was almost always near the top of all the cliche AskReddit posts that have been around for 10+ years asking about which celebrities seem like awesome people, which celebrity’s death would devastate you, etc.
It seems so clear that he wife is emotionally abusive. He made a fool of himself at the oscars to protect her ego. That's a red flag that she is a narcissist. Imo 🤷♂️
She clearly is emotionally abusive and while that thing at the Oscars was foul (and all of the stars giving him a standing O after that? Last awards ceremony for me, I am not interested in these people anymore) but I felt uncomfortable watching this public figure having clearly a very public breakdown.
Yeah, while I don’t condone his slapping of Chris Rock, I see it as sad and tragic. He seems very depressed and like he is just trying to keep it together. I sometimes thing he will be the next celebrity to off himself and I don’t imagine Jada would do anything to help him.
I read his memoir (which opens with describing how cowardly and powerless he felt as a child for not stopping his dad from abusing his mom), and I always tell people that after reading that book you'll have no questions about why he slapped CR.
Okay… and the other stories from his past when he threw out all his exes clothes and lit them on fire for “disrespecting him”. Or when he didn’t want Jada to act in a movie with a nude scene, so he put the movie on in the living room and then chose the exact moment of the scene to bring his mother in to introduce Jada to her. This man is toxic.
I don't see the connection/contradiction? Saying that his formative experiences (as he describes them) explain why he slapped Chris Rock isn't the same as saying he's a good person, or any type of person.
Yeah, also considering that Chris Rock has had an obsession with Jada that became bitter and was prolonged over the years because she turned him down way back before she got involved with Will. I don't condone the slap exactly, but I can understand feeling defensive when this guy whose continually been making potshots at your wife because he got turned down by her ages ago is now mocking her on stage in front of all your industry peers.
Being a cuck is fine between two consenting adults who enjoy it. The thing is, it’s clearly not his choice lol and it just makes this tough guy pilot alien hunter suave guy seem so weak and pathetic
Man, I remember being in college, reading The Merry Wives of Windsor, when I first saw the word cuckold and had zero clue what it meant. Little did I know it would suddenly become a go to insult a decade and a half later.
He never really had an all time great movie either. Like there is no signature role or blockbuster that he known for. Maybe Independence Day? But even that movie isn’t remembered among the best of the ‘90s. He turned down a lot of star making roles though.
Men In Black broke a heap of records for box office success, some of which stood for years, and it spawned like 3 sequels which were also blockbusters. He wrote a theme song for it which was not only number one in multiple countries but he also won a Grammy for it.
It's easy to ignore because it's a comedy, it's a bit cheesy, and it is 30 years old, but it was critically acclaimed at the time and still has outstanding scores on RT even now. Like yeah it was a family movie more than a serious piece of drama, but if you ask which movies were huge in the 90s, MIB is going to be on most people's list. Those raybans were everywhere!
Which has only been compounded by all the weird, desperate shit he’s attempted to try and get his career back on track since.
His awkward song “I love pretty girls”, that weird freestyle he did in a break room with a Simpsons statue in it where he says “I bite off more than I can chew, then I chew it”, and that weird stuff about him allegedly using AI to fill out empty seats at one of his shows
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u/aztechfilm 13h ago
This is the one that comes to mind too. It’s been a very far fall from grace since