The most “miraculous” moment of Will Smith’s career: “Everything went perfectly”

When Will Smith‘s path to superstardom began in the mid-1980s as one half of the day-glo hip-hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, it seemed like all his goddamn dreams had come true.

The young man from Philadelphia who began rapping in his bedroom at the age of 12 released his first single while still a senior in high school, and before the ‘80s closed out, he and Jeff had fucking three albums under their belts (Rock the House; He’s the DJ, I’m the Rapper; And in This Corner…).

On the surface, it seemed like a future as a rap icon was a dead cert, but behind the scenes, Smith’s free-spending had landed him in a spot of bother with the IRS.

So, when NBC came along in 1990 with the offer of building a sitcom around him, Smith decided to take the plunge.

He needed the money to make the government whole for his unpaid taxes, after all, and decided that the fact he had no acting experience whatsoever was a mere trifle that would work itself out.

Even Smith couldn’t have foreseen just how well things would develop, though, and how transformative his acting debut would truly be.

For starters, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air came together significantly quicker than most Hollywood productions, which Smith only truly appreciated years later when he had more experience in the business.

In his tell-all memoir Will, he wrote, “In Hollywood terms, the conception, casting, writing, deal making, set design, shooting, editing, and airing of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air hovered on the border of the miraculous.

Shows don’t happen this fast.

Everything went perfectly.”

Indeed, according to Smith, the show took less than six months to make it air after first being proposed to him, which is unheard of.

This quick turnaround meant that Smith and everyone involved in the production, including iconic producer Quincy Jones, had no time to second-guess themselves.

“There was no paralysis through analysis,” Smith noted.

“And I loved it.” Before he knew it, he was shooting his very own sitcom, playing a fictionalised version of the boisterous, colourful, charismatic public persona he’d cultivated in his years in the music world – and he was in Heaven.

“I found my thing,” Smith revealed.

“The world of acting unleashed all the artistic impulses within me.

It was the first external canvas that felt big enough to hold the landscapes of my imagination.” Astonishingly, despite never considering acting to be something he wanted to pursue, Smith suddenly realised it was his true calling.

Now it made sense why he had begun to feel like his “musical expression always felt narrow and constrained”, because he was actually crying out for a different – and much bigger – canvas to express every part of his profound desire to entertain.

As a musician in the world of hip-hop, there were only so many places Smith could go before his audience would start to resent him changing his style.

He could be creative, but only up to a certain point, and it meant that, while he had fun making music, it often “felt like living in a great neighbourhood”.

By contrast, “acting felt like being set free in an infinite universe,” where he could be anything he wanted to be, as long as he worked hard, and people gave him the opportunity.

He could even incorporate music into his acting if the role called for it.

Ultimately, Smith’s “miraculous” sitcom wound up leading to something even more unlikely: a career as the biggest movie star on the planet.

“Acting encompasses all the things that I am— storyteller, performer, comedian, musician, teacher,” he rhapsodised, before admitting something that everyone in his circle was likely ecstatic to hear, except poor DJ Jazzy Jeff.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Smith noted.

“I really like making music, but I love acting.”