Will Smith had a serious case of foreshadowing. The 53-year-old King Richard actor feared losing his career months before his now-infamous slap at Chris Rock .
The actor shared this admission on David Letterman’s Netflix show, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.
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Will recalled worrying about losing his career and fortune while hallucinating on ayahuasca, a psychoactive herbal drink.
Will’s interview with David was taped months before he attended the 2022 Academy Awards.
That night, Will Smith got up on stage and slapped comedian Chris Rock across the face.
This was in response to Rock making a joke about Will Smith ‘s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
He joked about her shaved head, which is a result of the hair-loss condition alopecia.
After the slap, Will sat down and yelled, “leave my wife’s name out of your [expletive] mouth.”
Less than an hour after this, Will won his first Academy Award.
This was the Best Actor award for his role as Richard Williams in ‘King Richard.’
The film is about the father of Venus and Serena Williams turning his daughters into tennis champions.
In his speech, an emotional Smith apologized to the Academy.
He also compared himself to Richard, who he called a “fierce defender of his family.”
“In this time in my life, in this moment, I am overwhelmed by what God is calling on me to do and be in this world,” Will said.
Later, Will publicly apologized to Chris Rock.
Despite these apologies, he’s been paying for the slap ever since.
The actor was banned from the Oscars and other Academy events for 10 years . Following this, the release date of the actor’s upcoming film with Apple, Emancipation , has been pushed to 2023.
Now, it seems that the only one who saw the demise of his career coming was Will himself.
During an appearance on My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, Will revealed that he was “terrified” to take ayahuasca, a herbal tea that causes a psychedelic experience.
“You’re not hallucinating. It’s like both realities are 100 percent present,” Smith said of the effects.
“So you know you’re in this room. You’re sitting in the room. You don’t lose sight. It’s not, like, superimposed on this reality. It’s totally separate.”
Will said that he had “the individual most hellish psychological experience of my whole life.”
This was the vision of his career imploding. “I’m drinking, I’m sitting there, and then, all of the sudden, it’s like I start seeing all of my money flying away,” he said.
“And my house is flying away, and my career is gone away. I’m like, ‘Ugh!'” he continued.
“And I’m trying to grab for my money and my career. My whole life is getting destroyed. My fear. I’m in there and I’m wanting to vomit and all of that.”
The need to vomit is a common symptom of ayahuasca use.
Then, he heard a voice saying, “This is what the [expletive] it is.
The vision hit closer to home when he heard his daughter, Willow, saying, “Daddy, help me! Daddy! How come you won’t help me?”
“I’m like, ‘I don’t see you, baby,'” he recalled. The shaman then told him to relax and sit up.
“Then slowly I stopped caring about my money, I just wanted to get to Willow,” he said.
This left him with an important realization:
“I realized that anything that happens in my life, I can handle it. I can handle any person I lose. I can handle anything that goes wrong in my life. I can handle anything in my marriage. I can handle anything that this life has to offer me,” he said.
