A movie I’m actually considering seeing at the theatre is Hitch, the new romantic comedy starring Will Smith and King of Queens’ Kevin James. In an interview today in the Houston Chronicle he explains how he and his wife have kept their marriage together.
So, I’m reading it and I’m wondering, “Seriously, does he really have it that together?” No doubt, he is a gifted actor and has multi-faceted skills that make him an ideal leading man, performing artist and on-screen comedian. He and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, seem to have a quality marriage, especially, by Hollywood standards, but I can’t help being skeptical when J-Lo marries seemingly everyone she meets.
Here’s the exerpt:
Married seven years, Smith and Pinkett Smith have one of Hollywood’s model marriages. The couple are parents of Jaden, 6, Willow, 4, and Trey, 12, Smith’s son from his first marriage. Instead of indulging in real-life drama over their merged family, the Smiths created and produced a comedy series for UPN, All of Us, loosely based on their experience.
“Jada and I don’t just love our relationship, we study it,” Smith says, adding that the key is “blatant honesty. … Jada knows who I am and I know who I am.”
Which is a good thing, considering his sizzling on-screen chemistry with the beautiful Mendes (Training Day, Out of Time).
“It’s simple. Eva Mendes is fine, a beautiful young actress. Am I going to try to sleep with her or not? No. If I answer the question truthfully, we can move along. The complexity only comes in with a lie.”
Wow. Considering the myriad of relationship problems people suffer on a regular basis and the soaring divorce rate, it is hard to imagine that someone with this level of fame – generally a recipe for relationship disaster – not to mention someone who clearly could get any woman he wanted, has his life this well put together.
I hope my skepticism is unfounded because Smith is one of the rare guys I will pay to see in a movie. He is likeable and I find him to be an actor with real range considering roles that have run the gamut from Fresh Prince of Bellair to Independence Day to Six Degrees of Separation.
It also bears noting that his incredible crossover success is something rarely seen by anyone, let alone an African American actor. Despite Hollywood’s lip service to the black community, African American’s are routinely typecast in roles clearly drawn up for black actors, not just plain quality actors.
Only the rare few like Denzel Washington can eclipse that stigma and it appears that Will Smith is able to as well.
I hope he continues to have the kind of success that he appers to have in his marriage as he does in his career. Funny – someone in Hollywood actually worth looking up to.