Yahoo Movies Will Smith Hallucinated About His Life And Career Being Destroyed Before That Oscars Slap
Will Smith has revealed he once hallucinated that his life and career were “destroyed” in an interview recorded before the drama of the 2022 Oscars, which saw him slap comic Chris Rock.
The Hollywood star made the revelation in David Letterman’s Netflix series My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.
The actor made headlines around the world when he went up on stage during the Academy Awards and slapped Chris, who was presenting, after the comic made a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett-Smith.
Following the shocking incident, the actor resigned from the Academy and was subsequently banned from appearing at any Oscar events for 10 years.
Will Smith and Chris Rock (Photo: Getty)
Speaking about his experiences with ayahuasca – a powerful psychedelic drug taken in liquid form – the star said that the substance had started his “spiritual journey”.
“You’re not hallucinating,” he explained. “It’s like both realities are 100 per cent present… There’s what’s going on in your head and what’s going on in the room.
“Once you drink it, you’re gonna see yourself in a way you’ve never seen yourself.”
Will then described one particular trip, which he called “the individual most hellish psychological experience of my life”.
Will Smith (Photo: Paras Griffin via Getty Images)
“I’m drinking, I’m sitting there, and then all of a sudden, it’s like I start seeing all of my money flying away and my house is flying away and my career is gone away,” he recalled.
“I’m trying to grab for my money and my career and my whole life is getting destroyed.”
Asked by Letterman if this represented his real-life fears, Will agreed.
“I hear a voice saying, ‘This is what the fuck it is. This is what the fuck life is.’ And I’m going, ‘Oh shit’,” he said.
Will added that, during the trip, he then heard his daughter Willow crying out for help, but he couldn’t get to her. With the shaman’s help, he began to relax.
“Then slowly, I stopped caring about money. I just wanted to get to Willow,” he said. “I stopped caring about my house, I stopped caring about my career… when I came out of it, I realised that anything that happens in my life, I can handle it.”
My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman is on Netflix now.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost UK and has been updated.
