Will Smith faced financial ruin before his “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” success.
The “Men in Black” star has admitted he went through severe money troubles, losing his cars and his home, and even spent a night in jail before he hit stratospheric fame with the hit 90s U.S. sitcom.
Will is coming clean about his past in his new memoir, “Will,” and he was quizzed about his low point in the TV special, “The Oprah Conversation: Will Smith.”
In a clip from the Apple TV+ show, the broadcast legend asked: “So right before ‘Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,’ I think people would be surprised to know, this is the first time, I realized…you basically lost everything.
“The government seized your cars, it took your home, you ended up in jail. You describe it in two words actually, ‘rock bottom.’ What was at the root of that downfall, Will? And the life lesson you took from it?”
The actor explained a radio station fight that saw him put behind bars made him reassess his life.
He said: “When it rains, it pours. So getting into the fight at the radio station, Charlie punching the dude that landed me in jail, so the money is gone, the car is gone. I am laying on the floor in a jail cell, and I am like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me!'”
And he still can’t believe how far he’s come.
“I won a Grammy eight months ago,” he marveled. “Like, what is happening? And it’s just the spiral when it starts going the other way. It’s like, sometimes you just have to get out the way and wait until the downward spiral stops.”
