REVIEW:

Near the end of Will Smith’s 2021 autobiography, Will, he shares how in recent years he’s taken ayahuasca (the South American psychedelic) several times, and during one such experience a female presence he named “Mother” simply repeated to him, “Stop talking” over and over again.

After listening to him narrate the 16-hour audiobook, more relatable words were never spoken.

I’m fairly neutral on Smith, aka The Fresh Prince aka Willard aka Big Willy. Essentially I don’t mind if he’s in a movie I’m watching, but I probably didn’t start watching it just because he’s in it. I love great audiobooks though, so snagging this on my library app was a no-brainer after seeing its very high ratings.

I did get jiggy wit all the music interspersed throughout the stories, and I loved hearing about his childhood in Philadelphia and the early days of his success with Jazzy Jeff in the exploding hip hop scene. Even the origin story of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” fascinated me. But once he became THE BIGGEST MOVIE STAR OF ALL TIME, he lost me.

Isn’t that weird? Typically when you read a Hollywood tome you’re in it for the juicy celebrity bits and have to wade through the blah blah blah rags to get to the rah rah rah riches. The issue here is that Smith’s ego so overtakes the narrative that it’s hard to see him as the sympathetic character he wants to be. Readers/listeners are repeatedly told how awesome he his, including during a game of Monopoly with his wife and kids that he breaks down play-by-painful-play. The result is that my neutrality on the guy tipped toward the negative. It’s not often I end up liking a subject less at the end of an autobiography, and I certainly didn’t expect that to happen here.

I do keep referring to this as an autobiography rather than a memoir, because it’s a pretty exhaustive look at his entire life. Though maybe it’s a biography, since he has a credited co-author, Mark Manson. I didn’t love Manson’s The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F#ck, so perhaps that’s part of it.

I don’t regret listening to Will, but I sure was glad when it was over.

Now I’ll take Mother’s sage advice and stop talking.

PUBLISHER SYNOPSIS:

One of the most dynamic and globally recognized entertainment forces of our time opens up fully about his life, in a brave and inspiring book that traces his learning curve to a place where outer success, inner happiness, and human connection are aligned. Along the way, Will tells the story in full of one of the most amazing rides through the worlds of music and film that anyone has ever had.

Will Smith’s transformation from a fearful child in a tense West Philadelphia home to one of the biggest rap stars of his era and then one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood history, with a string of box office successes that will likely never be broken, is an epic tale of inner transformation and outer triumph, and Will tells it astonishingly well. But it's only half the story.

Will Smith thought, with good reason, that he had won at life: not only was his own success unparalleled, his whole family was at the pinnacle of the entertainment world. Only they didn't see it that way: they felt more like star performers in his circus, a seven-days-a-week job they hadn't signed up for. It turned out Will Smith's education wasn't nearly over.

This memoir is the product of a profound journey of self-knowledge, a reckoning with all that your will can get you and all that it can leave behind. Written with the help of Mark Manson, author of the multi-million-copy bestseller The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, Will is the story of how one person mastered his own emotions, written in a way that can help everyone else do the same. Few of us will know the pressure of performing on the world's biggest stages for the highest of stakes, but we can all understand that the fuel that works for one stage of our journey might have to be changed if we want to make it all the way home. The combination of genuine wisdom of universal value and a life story that is preposterously entertaining, even astonishing, puts Will the book, like its author, in a category by itself.

“It’s easy to maneuver the material world once you have conquered your own mind. I believe that. Once you've learned the terrain of your own mind, every experience, every emotion, every circumstance, whether positive or negative, simply propels you forward, to greater growth and greater experience. That is true will. To move forward in spite of anything. And to move forward in a way that brings others with you, rather than leave them behind.” —Will Smith