“He kept me in line. He’d get this look that said, ‘One more step, Will, and it’ll get ugly.’ He’s a steady and positive figure in my life. I look at my father and how he was able to keep four kids fed and clothed and still managed to find time to spend with us.”
There’s even a video where Will talks about how his father taught him the invaluable lesson of never giving up.
“My father was an electrician and refrigerator man. We installed big freezer cases and all the lights in supermarkets. We did that every summer. But for some reason, one summer my father said he needed a new wall on front of his shop. So he tore down a 16-foot high and 30-foot wide wall and me and my brother would have to dig a 6 foot deep hole in the ground for the foundation. But it was just myself and my little brother. So every day after school for a year we worked on that wall. A a year and a half later, we laid the final brick. And my father stood back and my father looked at the wall and looked at me and my brother and said, ‘Now don’t you never tell me that you can’t do something.'”
Our hearts and prayers go out to the family of Will Smith. The actor has yet to make a formal announcement.