By Christina Radish
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Will Smith with his "I Am Legend" co-star Abbey at his Hand and Footprint Ceremony held at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Calif. on December 10, 2007.
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Based on the complex and provocative 1954 novel by Richard Matheson, Warner Bros. Pictures’ I Am Legend tells the story of Robert Neville (Will Smith), a brilliant scientist who could not contain the terrible, unstoppable, incurable, man-made virus that has left him the last human survivor in what remains of New York City, and maybe the world. Somehow immune, Neville has spent three years, with his loyal dog Sam by his side, faithfully sending out daily radio messages, desperate to find any other survivors who might be out there. But, he is not alone. Mutant victims of the plague, known as the Infected, lurk in the shadows, watching Neville’s every move, waiting for him to make a fatal mistake, as he strives to find a way to reverse the effects of the virus, using his own immune blood.
No stranger to science fiction, Will Smith, who has done such films as I, Robot, Independence Day and Men in Black, had long had an affinity for the novel and had been keeping tabs on the project’s development, over the years. Seeing the role as both a challenge and an opportunity, the Philly native was honored that Matheson himself thought he was the perfect person to bring the character to life.
The 39-year-old father of three recently spoke to MediaBlvd Magazine about working with his daughter, shooting on the empty streets of Manhattan and what he might do in a real-life disaster.
MediaBlvd Magazine> You have had a passion for I Am Legend since you were going to do the film with director Michael Bay. Why has Neville stayed with you for the past 12 or 13 years?
Will Smith> With movies, I really connect to the Joseph Campbell idea of the collective unconscious. There are things that we all dream, and there are things that each one of us has thought, that connect to life, death and sex. There are things that are beyond language. To me, this is one of those concepts. There are times that you have been on the freeway and wished that everybody were dead. There have been times where you just wish you were by yourself. You don’t need any of these assholes. How we would fair against whatever is in that unknown is a really primal idea. That’s why I loved this concept. It connects to ideas that a 4-year-old can understand.
MediaBlvd> Two other movies have been made from this book. Did you look at those and did you read the book?
Will> Yeah, I looked at both films, and there’s a couple of versions of the book also. The idea of being alone and the fear of the darkness is such a primal concept. Every four year old has thought about that idea of being separated from their family and being alone and it being dark. In general, the idea is in the collective unconscious. We’re all keyed into these fears and hopes. As far as these other film versions, the thing that I felt we’d be able to do with this film was that there’s never been this level of technology to support the idea, where you actually can shut down six blocks of Manhattan, and if a car goes by in the background, you don’t have to worry about it because you can just do the scene and remove it later. That level of technology has never been around before, to support the weight of this story. I felt like it would be a great opportunity to see visuals and to experience emotions that, in the past, you haven’t been able to.
MediaBlvd> Was it comforting for you to know that I Am Legend’s author, Richard Matheson, considered you perfect for the role of Robert Neville?
Will> That’s extremely helpful. With The Pursuit of Happyness, and also with Ali, it was so important that that person felt that I’d done them justice. And, it was important to me that Mr. Matheson felt that I could do this, and that he was on board for it. And, when he signed off, it was all good.
MediaBlvd> Can you talk about the loneliness of your character, and the madness he begins to feel?
Will> It was such a wonderful exploration of myself. What happens is that you get in a situation where you don’t have people to create the stimulus for you to respond to, so you start creating the stimulus and the response. In those types of situations, there is a connection with yourself, where your mind starts to drift and you learn things about yourself that you would never even imagine. In order to prepare for that, we sat with former POWs and people who had been in solitary confinement. That was the framework for creating the idea. They said, “The first thing you do is create a schedule. You will not survive in solitary if you don’t schedule everything.” We talked to Geronimo Ji-Jaga, formerly Geronimo Pratt of the Black Panthers, who was in solitary for over three months. He said that you plan things. You will take two hours, because it’s on the schedule, to just clean your nails. He said that he spent about six weeks and trained roaches to bring him food. I was sitting there thinking, “Oh, my God!” Either he really did train the roaches, which is huge, or his mind needed that to survive. Either way, you put that on camera and it’s genius. For me, the thing was to be able to get into the mental space where, whatever the truth was for Robert Neville, it didn’t matter because the only thing that mattered was what he saw and what he believed. It was such a great exploration of what happens to the human mind, when it is trying to defend itself. I’m a better actor for having had to create both sides of the scene, with no dialogue.
MediaBlvd> How did you mentally prepare for that isolation?
Will> That was the terrifying part of taking on this film. There’s probably 80 pages of just me and a dog. I thought that might be a little too much Will for anybody. I looked at it and worked with Akiva Goldsman, the writer of the script, and just really found the things and the people that could really create the texture of what it truly means to be by yourself.
MediaBlvd> How are you able to display emotion on screen, like when you cry on screen? What mental space do you have to go to?
Will> For those types of moments, generally what I try to do is connect to the actual situation. There are actors that connect to their own past, but I have to connect to what’s in the room, what’s in that situation, and what the character is actually experiencing. I need months and months of preparation for a particular scene like that. I convince myself into feeling an emotion and a connection, and truly try to experience it.
MediaBlvd> How significant is it that the last man alive is African American?
Will> It’s almost a metaphysical idea for me. I rarely think about that until someone brings it up. Then I say, “Oh, wow!” That never actually crossed my mind, in that way. I feel like the acknowledgment of those kinds of ideas put a weird boundary on my thoughts. I can’t allow myself to be a part of it because it makes me think smaller, if that makes any sense. I’ve never really thought about the significance of that with the film.
MediaBlvd> What was the experience of shooting in New York City like?
Will> Shooting in New York, especially something on this level, is difficult. I would say that, percentage wise, it was the largest amount of middle fingers I’ve ever received in my career. I’m used to people liking me. When I come to town, it’s fun. But, I was starting to think, “F-You” was my name. We shut down six blocks of Fifth Avenue on a Monday morning. That was probably poor logistics and poor planning. When we were doing it, it was chilling to walk down the middle of Fifth Avenue. There is never an opportunity to walk down the middle of Fifth Avenue. At 2 o’clock in the morning on Sunday, you can’t walk down the middle of Fifth Avenue. It just created such a creepy energy. There is a shot in the movie where you can see iconic buildings, like the UN and Broadway, and it puts such an eerie, icky feeling, when you see those shots. Logistically, it was a nightmare, but it absolutely created something that you can’t do with green screen, and you can’t do shooting in another city, instead of New York.
MediaBlvd> How much training did you have to do for this?
Will> What we determined, from our research, is that eating just becomes something that you do because you have to. There’s no pleasure in it. There’s no real desire to eat. You just know that your brain’s not going to function, if you don’t. I have a much easier time losing weight than I do putting weight on. It was 50 times harder, trying to put weight on for Ali, than it was for me to drop weight for this. If you run 30 miles a week -- 5 miles, six days a week -- your body will look like whatever you want it to look like. There are wonderful elements of being in shape that keep a marriage going, so its important for me to stay in good shape and in good condition. When you marry a little firecracker, you’ve gotta stay in shape.
MediaBlvd> What was it like working with your daughter, Willow?
Will> You don’t work with Willow, you work for Willow. Jada and I debate the age-old debate of nature versus nurture. Because two actors went to Mexico and drank some tequila and made a baby, does that make the baby an actor? Or, did it happen because she grew up in a house where that is what is in her house, that is just the life, and that’s the experience that she knows? When I look at Willow, I just believe that it has to be neither one of those. There has to be something else. She just loves it. We were shooting the bridge sequence and there was a building that had a temperature gauge on it that we watched. We started at sunset, when it was probably 29 degrees, or something. Then, we watched it go down to one, and then it got to negative. Willow was out there, and she was cold. She was getting a little irritable. But, she looked at me and said, “Daddy, I don’t care how low it goes, I’m going to finish.” I was like, “Wow! That’s good, baby, because Daddy is leaving, if it goes any lower than one.” She just wants it. She has a drive, an energy and she just connects to human emotion. After The Pursuit of Happyness, when she saw what Jaden did, she said, “I want that.” We make our kids audition. We don’t do the whole nepotism thing. So, the night we told Willow that she got the role, we called the family in because we announce all the good things that happen with everybody in the house and everybody has to share in it. We said, “Everybody, we just want to congratulate Willow. She got, I Am Legend. She immediately turned around to Jaden and smiled.
MediaBlvd> Which one of your kids demanded more money, Jaden or Willow? And, are you planning to work with either of them again soon?Will> When we look at Jaden and Willow, we say that Jaden is Johnny Depp. He just wants to do good work, and he doesn’t care what money he gets. He doesn’t care if people see it or don’t see it. He loves acting, and he just wants to make good movies. Willow is Paris Hilton. Willow wants to be on TV.
MediaBlvd> How attached did you get to the dog?
Will> Abbey was the dog’s real name. When I was about nine years old, I had a dog, named Trixie. It was a white golden retriever that got hit by a car. So, now I refuse to have animals. I said, “Jada, you can have the dogs you want, and the kids can have the dogs they want, but I’m not letting myself get emotionally connected to a dog again.” Then, they brought that damn Abbey on the set. People say dogs are smart, but it got to the point, with Abbey, where she would be playing, and then she would hear, “Rolling!,” and she would run over to her mark and get ready. And, she would know when I wasn’t doing my lines right. If I would get lost in the scene she would just go silent and look at me funny. It was the first time I had allowed myself to connect to and be fond of a dog, since that experience. I said to the owner, “Please, Abbey had to live with me,” and he said, “This is how I make my living, man.” I was like, “Just tell me what you need. A house in the hills?” She was so smart, fun and warm. It was painful to let go of her. She is great. She is way on another plain of connecting to what your energy is and what your feelings are. And, she’s protective. It’s beautiful.
MediaBlvd> Are you a Bob Marley fan, like your character?
Will> I love Bob Marley. It’s funny because the script was done and we’d already begun shooting, and I was looking for things for my character, and that Bob Marley Legend album actually is my favorite album, so I just connected with the concept of Bob Marley having the virologist idea of trying to cure hate with music. That idea just exploded in my mind, about two weeks into production. It just fit perfectly that idea of lighting up the darkness. It was one of those perfect opportunities when something that already lives inside of you fits perfectly with a character and a situation.
MediaBlvd> We’re used to your movies coming out as big summer blockbusters, but this is different, isn’t it?
Will> Akiva Goldman and I met during the Oscar run, when he won for A Beautiful Mind and I was nominated for Ali. We met, hung out and talked, and we posed the question to one another, “Why do the big movies come out in the summer and the good movies come out in the fall? Why are they separated? Is there any possibility that you could take both and marry those ideas, and make a big movie that has a big idea and a big concept, but put a person at the center of it and really follow a character through whatever the reality of that situation is?” For example, you will never have a realistic situation with a dog in a summer movie the way that we did in this film. You just wouldn’t do the real version of it because the movie costs too much to risk it. We truly tried to commit to the small art-house artistic, truthful version that stays true to the source material, and that feeling and energy, and yet has the big blockbuster package. We’re hoping that people will respond to it. We know that when people go into the theatre, they’ll be a little shocked by it, but hopefully that will turn out to be a good thing.
MediaBlvd> Many of the books that are currently on the New York Times best-seller list deal with life, the self-conscious and our feelings. What do you think it is that has people so fascinated in that subject, since that’s what this film deals with as well?
Will> I think it’s a primal idea. Carl Jung talked about the collective unconscious and how we dream similar things, even though we have no contact with one another. If you map the dreams of an Aboriginal tribe in Australia that has no contact with Tibetan Monks, they dream similar things. We have all had a piece of that collective unconscious idea. We have all dreamed about, or had nightmares about, being alone. It’s the representative dark of the unknown and what that would be. The fear, and the converse of the fear, is the hope that you connect to those concepts.
MediaBlvd> What would you do in a real life disaster? Have you ever had to play the hero in the real world?
Will> That is what is interesting about playing a character like this. You get to explore and wonder how you would react. When I made Ali, I really asked myself that question. When Ali didn’t step forward because they wouldn’t call him Muhammad Ali, and he knew he was going to jail, and he knew what the situation was going to be, but still he didn’t step forward, I just remember thinking, in that moment, “What would I do?” I just don’t know if I would be enough of a man to give up everything I have right now, the way Ali did, for that principle. When I look at Robert Neville, I think, “What was there to live for? What was there to hope for? How do you wake up everyday and try to restore something that is good and gone?” I like to believe that I would put my chest up and stand forward, march on and continue to fight for the future of humanity. But, I would probably find a bridge and say “I’m coming to join you Elizabeth!” It’s a tough question, and I guess the answer is, “I don’t know.” You want to be tested to know what you would do, but you really don’t want to be tested. That is the space that I have lived in with quite a few of the roles I have played.
MediaBlvd> If you really were the last man on earth, what comfort items would you want with you?
Will> A pistol because I’m out of there. I’d go to the nearest bridge and jump. As much as people get on your nerves on the freeway, and as much as people irritate you through your daily life, if you took everyone away and you had it exactly the way that you wanted it, it would be the most miserable existence that you could experience. Human connection, the groups that we form, and being a part of something that moves and changes the world, is such a basic, human, simple idea. There would be absolutely no pleasure for me at all in experiencing that amount of loneliness and solitude.
MediaBlvd> Do you still talk with DJ Jazzy Jeff?
Will> Yeah, Jeff and I perform a couple of times a year. We’re going to go out big in July. We are figuring out some places around the world to do some big shows. It’s about to be that circle back to the golden age of hip-hop. There is starting to be a little resurgence, so we are planning some things.
MediaBlvd> Will the new tour coincide with your next film, Hancock?
Will> Yeah, probably. We’ll do performances with premieres, around the world.
MediaBlvd> What is Hancock about?
Will> It’s the Michael Mann version of an alcoholic superhero. It is so bizarre. Michael Mann developed the script. Jason Bateman plays a publicist, and I save his life. He begins to rehabilitate me in the eyes of the public.
MediaBlvd> What’s next for you?
Will> I’m working with Gabriele Muccino on something in March, called Seven Pounds. Gabriele has a wonderful insight on who I am and how to get the best out of me. There are some people that you can’t pull tricks on because they know exactly what is going on. They see you, right to the heart of who you are and what you are feeling. That is the relationship I have with those guys Gabriele and Michael Mann. I’m definitely looking forward to getting back in there with Gabriele. And, Hancock, with Charlize Theron and Jason Bateman, comes out on July 4th. Peter Berg directed it, and Akiva Goldsman, Michael Mann and myself produced it.
MediaBlvd> Can you talk about working with Michael Mann again on Empire?
Will> There’s not a lot of details yet. It’s just something that we’ve been considering. It’s an idea. Richard III is the model that we’re working off, but in that media world. Its just ideas right now. But, my cinematic education really reached a critical mass, in working with Michael Mann. Something clicked, after working with him. And, I feel like, over the next 10 years, I’ll actually make the best movies of my career. I almost feel like an athlete; caught in my prime. I’m in the best physical condition of my life. I’m mentally prepared, and love what I do, so I feel like this is truly the time for me to make my artistic strength, in my career.
MediaBlvd> With the holidays coming up, how do you keep your kids grounded?
Will> Jaden and Trey are very simple. Willow just wants clothes. She’s dressed herself since she was about four years old. She is very specific about her style, how she wants to look, how she wants to present herself, and all that. It’s funny, she doesn’t like going out and shopping. She wants you to think about her and she loves the idea that she gets things by surprise. Christmas really isn’t big for her. If she knows its coming, it’s not as big of a deal. Jaden just wants his family around. Anything that causes the whole family to be together is what he wants. We live out here, in La-la-land. Los Angeles and New York are cut off from the rest of the country and the rest of the world. For us, traveling is hugely important, so that our kids can really see and experience other things. We have taken them to South Africa. Gabriele hosted us just outside of Rome in his town. We try to get them to experience how other people live. The grounded idea is more of a concept of how you relate to your service of mankind. That is what we try to impart to our children. You are a part of a whole, and you have a responsibility to uplift and be a positive influence on the whole.
MediaBlvd> Is there another country you would like to take your family to, and possibly live in?
Will> Not to live. I just can’t imagine topping Los Angeles and Miami, for places I would love to live. I have a theory that cities and towns essentially have emotional patterns. There are cities that each and every one of us could live in, that match our emotional pattern, where we would just be better people if we lived in that place. My emotional pattern is like the weather patterns of Los Angeles and Miami. It’s warm all the time. It rains a little bit, but when it does, it’s fun because it cools it off. The traffic might get a little bad, but it’s not like being in four inches of snow in traffic. Jada needs four seasons. She can’t function if it’s warm all the time. She needs the hibernation. She needs the time where nothing is moving, it’s quiet and you aren’t hearing cars and horns because they are muffled by the wonderful snow. If I never, ever see snow again, for the rest of my life, that would be great.
MediaBlvd> What do you do in your spare time?
Will> I’ve really gotten hooked into the amount of reading I can do. I wonder, “How much can I read in one day?” I’m reading and connecting it to the application in my life. How can I take this and then apply it to my relationship? How can I apply it to educating my children? How can apply it to movies? How can I apply it to making the world better? If that were removed, I can’t even imagine what I would connect to, by myself. I love people, so it would be hard for me to not have anybody else around.
MediaBlvd> Are you a self-help guy?
Will> Yes, absolutely. I feel very confident that the keys to life for me are reading and running. The idea that there are trillions of people who have lived before us, and they had problems and they solved them and then they wrote it down in a book somewhere shows that there’s no new problem that we can have. We’ve got to try to figure things out by ourselves. There’s no relationship issue, or issue with your parents or your brother or the government that we can have, where somebody didn’t already write the answer down a thousand years ago, in a book. It’s bittersweet because you know it’s in a book somewhere, but you’ve actually got to find the right one that is going to give you the proper information. When I started reading and running, that was how I connected with my weakness. When you get on a treadmill, you deprive yourself of oxygen. You’re either the type of person that says you’re going to run three miles, and then you stop the treadmill at 2.94, and you call 2.94, three miles, or you get off after a mile, or you’re the type of person that runs hard through the finish line and, when you get to three, you realize, “God, I really could do five,” so you go ahead and do two more. Getting command of that person in my life has been really important.
MediaBlvd> You were accepted into M.I.T. If you hadn’t become an actor, was science the direction you were heading in?
Will> Math and science were always my strongest subjects. I always dreamed of designing a fully-computerized classroom. I always thought about how you could come in and take roll with your fingerprints, and then there’s a keyboard built into the desk and, as the teachers talked, their words would come up onto a computerized board. I dreamed of building and creating something like that when I was a child, and I may still do that, but it will be from a different perspective. I’ve always loved the idea of connecting technology and education.
MediaBlvd> What kind of a risk-taker are you?
Will> I actually don’t consider myself a huge risk-taker. I’m a student of the patterns of the universe. If I can figure out how something is seemingly risky, but I’ve got the numbers on my side, I get really comfortable with taking a leap. When I first came to Hollywood, I said, “I want to be the biggest movie star in the world!” And, my manager said, “Okay, we should probably plot a course.” So, he went and got the top 10 movies of all time, at that point, and we tried to figure out what the patterns were. Of the top 10 movies of all time, 10 out of 10 were special effects movies. Nine out of 10 were special effects movies with creatures. Eight out of 10 were special effects movies with creatures and a love story. So, Independence Day was not really a hard call to make. And, the concept for I Am Legend was not really a hard call to make. Then, it becomes about execution. Can you get into that artistic place where you’re advancing an idea and a genre? I look at the patterns, so I’m using my maximum amount of energy.
MediaBlvd> What drove you to become the biggest movie star in the world? Who inspired you as a child?
Will> My grandmother thought that I was just the greatest. She always had us playing the piano and doing recitations at church. She always kept us in shows. And, there was a look of pride that my grandmother would have in her eyes that became the fuel that I need forlife. I need my woman, daughter and mother, and women in general, to look at me with that look. I was probably about 15 years old when my first girlfriend cheated on me, and it so destroyed my concept of cause and effect in the universe. I remember laying in my bed, making a decision that I would never not be good enough again. And, in that bizarre, hurt 15-year-old’s mind, I thought, “No one will ever be able to cheat on me, and no one will ever leave me, if I’m good enough.” I may have gone a little overboard with it in my mind, but Jada has to have that look, every single day. I can’t function, if she doesn’t have that look in her eyes. That goes for my movies, and that goes for me as a father and as a husband, and everything that I do in my life. I have to educate myself to the place that I can contend to be the best on earth. That’s the only way to keep my woman from leaving me.
MediaBlvd> Can you talk about your friendship with Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, and how there is always a question as to whether or not you have converted to Scientology?
Will> I don’t necessarily believe in organized religion. I was raised in a Baptist household, went to a Catholic church, lived in a Jewish neighborhood, and had the biggest crush on the Muslim girls from the neighborhood over. Tom introduced me to the ideas of Scientology. I’m a student of world religion so, for me, it’s hugely important to have the knowledge and understanding of what people are doing. I believe that my connection to my higher power is separate from everybody else’s. I don’t believe that the Muslims have all the answers. I don’t believe the Christians have all the answers. Or, that the Jews have all the answers. I love my God, my higher power. It’s mine and mine alone. I create my connection and I decide how my connection is going to be.
MediaBlvd> Can you talk about your friendship with David and Victoria Beckham?
Will> They came to Los Angeles, so we just started hanging out with them and became friends. We’re friends with Tom and Katie, and they’re close with the Beckhams. I love David’s energy. I love his attitude, and what he represents to the sport. And, they’re very funny. I keep telling them, “You probably should let people know how funny you are, cause you’re hilarious!” They’re fun, open and funny, so I’m interested in spending some more time with and getting to know them.
