Will Smith Reflects About The Cost Of Fame After His Children Found Success

Will Smith opened up about a lot on Kevin Hart‘s Hart To Hart series on Peacock.

In addition to talking about almost not taking his Men In Black role, the 54-year-old actor also opened up about how fame came at a cost for him and his family.

Keep reading to find out more…

Will chatted about how his son, Jaden, and daughter, Willow, started to find success in the early 2010s, and the cost it came with.

“2010 was like the greatest year as an artist, as a parent. Karate Kid came out in June, ‘Whip My Hair’ came out in October. I’m building this dream of a family I’ve had in my mind,” he says.

Will went on, “‘I’m going to do it better than my father did it.’ We’ve talked about it, my father was abusive…I told myself I would never have that kind of energy with my family, and I had a dream, an idea of a family I was building. Pretty much 2010 to 2012 I had achieved everything I had ever dreamed. I was beyond [my] wildest dreams.”

But while success was coming, everyone actually seemed to be miserable while it was happening.

“Nobody in my family was happy. Nobody wanted to be in a platoon. Willow was the first one to begin the mutiny, and it was my first realization that success and money don’t mean happiness,” he recalled. “Up until that point, I really believed that you could succeed your way — to a house and a family — and you could win your way to happiness.”

Because of Willow‘s “mutiny”, Will says it brought him back to reality.

“You can have so much stuff that it makes you miserable,” he added. “That was my first pull-back, and I was like, ‘OK, what am I missing?’ That’s when I started reading and studying psychology and the relation to human happiness. I was never unhappy, I loved life — but I was driving the people around me in a way that I was leaving scorched earth.”

Just recently, Will gave his support to the SAG-AFTRA strike.