BAD BOYS FOR LIFE IS ON OUR SILVER SCREENS, WHICH MEANS WILL SMITH IS EVERYWHERE. YET THE THOUGHT OF NOT BEING AT THE FOREFRONT OF THE FILM WORLD IS WHAT HAS HELPED THE HOLLYWOOD ICON REFOCUS ON HIS HEALTH AND FITNESS, AS HE TELLS BESTFIT Will Smith has undergone something of an epiphany in recent years, and while these days the pursuit of ‘proving I can improve’ appears less important to the 51-year-old star of Bad Boys, Men In Black, I Am Legend and Independence Day, the actor still has aims to fulfil… not least at the gym. It all began back in 2013. After Earth had just bombed at the box office and, for the first time since bouncing onto the scene as the Fresh Prince in 1990, the Philadelphia-born actor, musician and philanthropist was left with the prospect that to the new generation of film aficionados he was irrelevant. “I think that hurt me a lot at the time,” he says. “I’d obviously been there at the forefront for so long, and suddenly I was looking at all these other people coming in, doing great work, and living that life of being new and exciting and relevant. “It’s impossible for anyone to stay at the top of that mountain and while a big part of me wanted to, another
part of me was tired. I was ready to step back, ready to look at other ways of being the best version of me… or even, a better version of me than I had been before.” Stepping back ultimately meant stepping up, but where in the past the priority was press engagements, photoshoots and personal appearances, this time Smith’s route to personal fulfilment came via the gym, through health, wellbeing and even a touch of quiet contemplation. His elevation from just another ageing film cult hero to someone who has reinvented himself as an older, wiser and leaner example of fulfilment has probably saved the actor from the sort of implosion associated with one of his more bullish characters. What’s more, the change he has undergone has, perversely, made him relevant all over again – an unexpected but not unwelcome biproduct. “Sure, I was happy to step away… but it’s always nice when the phone rings,” he laughs.
