Will Smith defied Hollywood expectations and became an international superstar.
Even Will Smith is hunched as unassumingly as possible over a cup of coffee.
But we mark ourselves off of each other.
Credit: Will and Jaden Smith Photograph by Sheryl Nields
Movie stars are becoming extinct, and Tom and I are helping one another.
Its jarring to hear Smith refer to himself as a movie star.
For the past hour or so, hes been effortlessly affable and grounded.
I love that, but Im jealous.
I am sooooo jealous of him right now!
Suddenly, Smith is roaring like a kid who just lost atMario Kart.
Im like, Dude, youre beating on me right now!
Hes just tired of being known for one thing.
For 80 percent of my career, he says, its been the hip-hop persona.
That dude fromMen in Blackis almost indistinguishable from the Fresh Prince.
He had just never done anything like this.
Which is precisely why Smith pursuedHappyness.
In addition to being safe, that zone happened to be stacked high with cash.
He scored withIndependence Day,Bad Boys II,Men in Black IandII, andI, Robot.
Even when he turned in a half-baked performance, he cleaned up at the box office.
I got cocky, says Smith of the failureWild Wild West(which grossed $114 million).
It was a level of stardom no black man had ever attained or was ever expected to.
NEXT PAGE: Busting a myth about African Americans and the international box office
