"As you know, I'm not a tennis player."
No, but Will Smith is a very good trainer, giving CBS News's Gail King tips ("a little more flex in your knees!") and pinches ("It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye!"). serves. Tennis Court.
Smith picked up a racket for his latest film, "King Richard." In the Oscar-nominated performance, he plays the father of Venus and Serena Williams, determined to champion his daughters on and off the court.
Kinga Schade, "To many, it didn't seem like Richard Williams knew what he was doing."
"He wasn't doing what people thought he was doing!" Smith laughed. "He didn't give a damn about tennis. He was trying to build his family, right? He was using tennis to cultivate his family, to inculcate values."
Little is known about Smith Price at the age of 53. He is a global superstar, selling millions of albums, billions of tickets at the box office, conquering the big screen and the small screen, and is now a best-selling author. Make no mistake, his memoir, "Will," isn't sugar-coated.
"My suffering helped me become who I am," he said.
This book is a candid confession of a boy from West Philadelphia.
The king asked, "You said, 'I was a strange child with big ears.' Why do you think you've made a weird kid?"
"I kind of lived in my imagination," he replied. "I couldn't help but see things and why they were funny."
But there was nothing funny about his life at home. Smith had a very complicated relationship with his father, a veteran who ruled the family with discipline, fear, and fistfights. At the age of nine, Smith noticed that his father had beaten his mother. "And I didn't do anything," he said.
"But as a little boy, Will, what are you supposed to do?"
"You know, kids' brains don't work that way. I hoped to be a superhero."
At a time when his parents separated, Smith said he thought about taking his own life.
"And it was the only time in my life that I contemplated suicide, and it was just, 'It was my fault.' I don't know how kids do that in their minds, but, you know, it was somehow my fault that my family was falling apart."
As a child, Smith competed as a class clown. His surname began with a teacher:
"Miss Brown, she was calling me Prince Charming," he laughed. "Prince Charming. So, I was Prince. And then I added fresh."
"And it stuck? It stuck with you?" asked the king.
"It stuck hard."
So was his love of hip-hop. He remembered his first rap at the age of 12:
at the age of one
i just started
On my journey to T-O-P.
and at the age of two
everybody knew
I was a hell, huh, MC.
"I actually wrote 'huh'!" They laughed.
He would reach T-O-P, and then some, first in rap, then as "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air".
New to acting, Smith will memorize lines from the entire cast, something he no longer laughs at today.
"But do you look at it and go, 'Oh, rookie mistake'?" asked the king.
"I was like, 'That dude is a terrible actor. He's not gonna do anything in this business!' They laughed.
But, he did. Smith could have stopped with a hit TV show. But that was not part of the plan.
"You were asked, 'What do you want from this career?' And you said you wanted to be...?"
"The biggest movie star in the world," he replied.
Smith's dream came true with several blockbuster films. "I'm just saying, Gayle, you know, I mean, people make movies in a row, but if you're going to make three in a row... I mean, what are we talking about? We What are you talking about? 'Bad Boys'? 'Independence Day'? 'Men in Black'?"
King asked, "Have you ever thought of your race in Hollywood as a deterrent to you, given the success you've had?"
"You know, I never looked at my races as being able to do anything for me," Smith said. "And I've been a really firm believer that, first and foremost, you have to believe, and when you believe, and if you believe in your level of belief, [that] your ability to bend the universe Will determine. If you don't believe, no one is going to believe."
For Smith, fame takes a back seat to family. He is the father of three children – Trey, from his first wife, Sherry Zampino; and Jaden and Willow with his wife of the past 25 years, Jada Pinkett Smith. They are a power couple. Many people believe that they have an unconventional marriage.
The king asked, "How do you handle all the nonsense about your marriage?"
"I've decided that chatter about my life can be beneficial to people," he said. "I think that chatter is the first step to having a real conversation, and being able to really figure out whether certain things in your heart are loving, or toxic."
"The two of you have talked very openly - this is a very famous story - infidelity in marriage and how you navigated that time..."
"Yeah, never. We've never had infidelity in our marriage."
"Have you never had infidelity in your marriage?"
"Never," he said. "Jada and I talk about everything. And we've never surprised each other with anything."
What may be surprising is how Smith understood the pain of his past. He made peace with his father when he was dying in 2016.
"In those last moments with my father, when I was able to forgive my father, I had a shocking realization that I was able to forgive myself," Smith said. The death of my father started a new phase in my life.
And that new phase continues with a mission to make a difference and create a legacy that is lasting and meaningful.
King asked, "So, as we're sitting here today, a lot of people are saying, 'Will Smith is on top of his game. Looks like Will Smith has it all.' What's left of you to do what you want to do?"
"Life has just gotten really, really simple for me, hasn't it?" he said. "I think I'm a better actor than ever. And I think I'm going to, you know, these next ten years of my career, I think, will top my acting performance.
"But I also feel like I can help people. There's a teacher inside me trying to get out. I've learned how to be happy here. And I've learned how to cultivate love here." And I want to share."