Will Smith: on his hot movie career, his divorce, his new lady love and the end of 'The Fresh Prince.'

Ebony, August, 1996 by Lynn Norment

My life is just really, really great." Coming from Will Smith, that is an understatement. The rapper-turned television actor-turned movie star and bona fide celebrity offers his characteristic sincere grin as he talks, a look of blissful contentment settling over his honey-colored face. Yes, life is good for Smith, whose meteoric rise to stardom began in high school when he released his debit rap album. While still learning the ropes of the music business, be got his own television comedy series. And after a few successful seasons, he began to star in movies. There was never a period of struggle or doubt or failure. Every project he has touched has turned to gold.

This summer, the personable and popular entertainer is showing yet another side of his versatile storehouse of talent as the star of the much-anticipated 20th Century Fox film, Independence Day, touted as one of, the season's blockbusters. In the movie, he portrays a heroic Marine fighter pilot who plays a major role in saving the Earth from all alien invasion. This role is a far stretch from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air character, and the 27-year-old actor reveals that there is much more to his life and career than his comedic television character could vision.

"Independence Day is just the classic disaster movie," he says. "It is in the tradition of The Poseidon Adventure and movies like that. There's a threat that the planet is going to be destroyed, and they - the aliens - actually begin destroying it. Washington, D.C., is destroyed in this movie - Los Angeles, New York, Moscow, Tokyo, London.

"It's warm, its funny and its chilling, all at the same time," says Smith, as he relaxes in his dressing room trailer oil the Sony Studios lot where he is working on a second science-fiction thriller. "There,s a scene where you see the Statue of, Liberty, falling over in slow motion. So, its like, Oh, my God!' It feels exactly the way it would be if something of this magnitude was ever to happen."

He says the films producer an writer, Dean Devlin, and the director and writer, Roland Emmerich who created the film Stargate, told him they were fans of his music videos and had always wanted to work with him.

While Independence Day is thrilling moviegoers across the country, Smith is finishing work on another science-fiction film, which he says has always been his favorite genre. On this hot, muggy, day in Los Angeles, he and Academy Award-winning actor Tommy Lee Jones, along with various alien creatures, are kept cool inside a huge warehouse-like building that houses the set for Men In Black. Months ago, Smith got a telephone call from Steven Spielberg, the movies executive producer, who told the actor: "You have to do this movie. We don't even want to talk about it."

"You just can't tell Steven Spielberg no," says Smith. In the movie, Smith's character is recruited by a top-secret government agency established to monitor and police alien activity, on Earth. The agents find themselves in the middle of a deadly plot by an intergalactic terrorist. In order to prevent worlds from colliding, the Smith and Jones characters must track down the terrorist and prevent the destruction of Earth. Again, Will Smith is the hero. But the continuing success of his career is not the only, reason Smith's life is so great. As his fans are aware, he is also hero-prince to Jada Pinkett, a talented actress whose career is also zooming She most recently starred in Eddie Murphy's new movie, The Nutty Professor. A photograph of the actress greets anyone stepping, into the trailer dressing room, and photographs of the loving twosome frequently have appeared in the press since Smith's divorce became final last year. When asked whether his divorce cast a cloud over his life, he says: "No, we were young, and we have a beautiful baby [Will Smith III, age 3]. So the deal worked out. Everything is cool, and I have a wonderful woman in my life light now."

With enthusiasm and a grin, he goes on to describe Pinkett as an intellectual goddess. "She's so intelligent," he says, his face beaming with pride. "She's very in touch with her emotions, which allows me to be in touch with mine. She helps me deal with everything that I have to deal with. She makes everything okay. No matter how difficult it gets, she always has something thing kind to say or a warm hug, or she'll cry with you if you feel like crying. But she'll also punch somebody in the face if they do something to me."

Asked whether Pinkett's "fabulous body" plays a role in his attraction to her, he says: "Well, there's a little bit of hat, too. My No. l attraction to Jada is intellectual. She's just someone whom I can talk to about anything. I've never been able to step outside of my maleness to share myself with someone. She's the first person with whom I've been able to break that down."

In 1986, Smith, then 17, burst onto the music scene as half of the Grammy Award-winning rap duo, D. J. Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince. Their first album, Rock the House, spawned the hit "Girls Ain't Nothing But Trouble" a few weeks before Smith finished Overbrook High School in Philadelphia. He got his first house that fall, and at age 18 the teen music star was overflowing with money and material possessions. Starry-eyed, he watched their second album, He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper, top the charts with the popular single, "Parents Just Don't Understand," which won a Grammy Award in 1988. They won a second Grammy in 1992.