The film Collateral Beauty comes next Friday. I have yet to read a review on it so I have no idea if it’s any good but the cast is stellar. We’ve discussed that the film is about Will Smith’s character suffering a loss so great that his life falls apart. To process his grief, he writes letters to Time, Love and Death who all, presumably, come to see him during the film. I hate to cry so I won’t see a tearjerker unless it is really well praised. In the interviews so far they say the film is great but they’re talking to a star of the movie so what else are they going to say? But they also say that, as sad as the subject is, you walk away from the movie feeling good and like it’s perfect for this time of year. Whether or not it fills you with the holiday spirit, it provided Will with a coping mechanism as his father died from cancer. Will got the script just when his father was diagnosed. On Ellen DeGeneres’ show, Will discussed how doing research on grief and actualizing that on film helped him deal with losing his father.

Will Smith experienced the phenomenon firsthand when he was cast in Collateral Beauty, a film about a father who is devastated by his young daughter’s death. Behind the scenes, the blockbuster star was coping with the loss of his own father, who passed away after a short battle with cancer.

“You’re playing a guy that’s experienced a loss and your dad—you just lost your dad,” Ellen DeGeneres broached the topic with the actor on her daytime talk show Thursday.

“Yeah. What was really interesting is I got the screenplay right when my father was diagnosed. You know, so I have the screenplay and I’m doing all of this research about a guy who experiences death you know at the time my father was given six weeks,” Smith recalled.

“My father and I were sharing it during that time so, you know, the performance for me, and the movie for me, and the ideas are so deeply personal,” he continued.

While the loss of a parent can be a tragic time, the star reflected on the month leading up to his death with fondness.

“My father, he actually he lived for four months beyond that point they gave him six weeks and what happened is everyday became so beautiful beyond the six weeks. You know, and then we were sitting one day and it was at about three months and he was like, ‘Man this crap is embarrassing.’ I said,’What dad?’ He said, ‘Man, you tell everyone you’re going to die in six weeks and three months later…'”

[From E! Online]

You can watch the clip here. I agree with CB about Will being engaging. I have yet to see an interview of his I don’t enjoy. He told Ellen that his father passed only a month ago and yet, at no point during the segment did I feel anything but uplifted by Will’s experience. He was able to covey the beauty in being allowed to process that time by being fully present in body and mind.

Dammit, I’m going to see this movie, aren’t I?

My favorite part of the interview is the last bit about his father lamenting outliving his prognosis. That’s exactly what my father would say. I guess we see where Will gets his humor. Speaking of Will’s humor, he and Ellen get into an argument over whether he has a lion in his backyard. It’s funny both because it’s Will but also because he is convinced he has an African lion living outside his bedroom and then defends the cost of lion urine. Seriously, I could watch a feature length Will Smith interview and be wildly entertained. Maybe even more than some of his movies.

Here is Will filming his new movie, the reason for his ‘stache

Photo credit:Fame/Flynet Photos and Getty Images