"The Pursuit of Happyness"
Will Smith Interview
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| 08:55:48 6.17 |
Sound Bite: Will Smith
There was a 20/20 piece that they did and I saw Chris Gardner standing in the bathroom that he had taken his son the first night that they were homeless and they slept in this bathroom and he’s gone back and he’s recounting the story but there’s a look of power and command and a swagger that he had and I had only seen that a couple of other times and once was with Nelson Mandela and once was with MUHAMMAD ALI. So it’s almost like I could see the look of a journey and I knew that I wanted to be a part to bringing it to the screen. (talks) No they don’t and this in Hollywood years this thing happened in of a blink of an eye, two years from idea to finished film is unheard of. (talks) Yeah for sure it can be three months just in that process. |
| 08:57:10 88.17 |
Sound Bite: Will Smith
No he, we shoot shorts and do things at the house all the time so he’s very, very camera savvy but we sent him into audition cause he, he said he felt he could do it. So he went in auditioned and you know a couple of weeks later he’s still in the running and down to twenty kids and then ten kids and Gabriele Muccino in his deep Italian accent he said ‘well I must have your baby, I must have your baby’ So he, the director fell in love with him. (talks) I’m saying all Jada and I did was you know we went to Mexico and got some tequila and nine months later he pops out so that was the extent of our participation. (talks) yeah you know he said that you tricked him he assumed because I made the fresh Prince of Bell Air and Men in Black and IRobot he thought that he was making a comedy, he didn’t realize that he was making this dramatic movie where he was going to be having to be crying and stuff. |
| 08:58:33 171.17 |
Sound Bite: Will Smith
It’s something that Gabriele Muccino the director he’s a student of Italian Neo-rism and he wanted to design that feeling into the movie where there are actual physical ramifications from watching this movie. Say when he wanted people to be exhausted physically when you get to the end of this movie and he did such a brilliant job of taking his time and the slow torture of the deterioration and then the slow rise I mean, genius just genius. |
