Will Smith’s fatherly advice might be falling on deaf ears these days. The Concussion star spoke about seeing the film through a parent’s eyes at the NYC premiere of the film.
“It was a little scary because my son played football for four years, and I wasn’t — it never even was a subject,” he said of the extensive brain injuries his real-life character, Dr. Bennet Omalu, uncovered in football players. “It never came up. We were concerned about him breaking his leg, or spinal injury was the big thing that all of the parents were concerned about. So it was scary to me — it was almost as if it was hidden in plain sight. And as I started to understand the science, I knew that it was something that I wanted to deliver to the world.”
As for whether the father of three would let his kids play now that he knows the truth behind the game, Smith, 47, noted, “I’m glad that that’s a hypothetical question. Anybody that has kids, you know how hard it is to tell your kids, ‘No.’ So if he wanted to play, I would want him to be thoroughly informed, and as a family we would have to make an informed decision.”
These days, his children — Trey, who he shares with ex-wife Sheree Zampino, and Jaden and Willow, who he shares with wife Jada Pinkett Smith — tend to do their own thing.
“You know, listen, I have a 23-year-old, a 17-year-old, and a 15-year-old, so they were done listening to me a long time ago,” he said, laughing.