Will Smith reveals he had a vision of the destruction of his career before the Oscars slap while tripping on ayahuasca, an herbal drink with psychedelic properties. While speaking to David Letterman on the most recent episode of My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, Smith recounts the trip, seeing all his money, home and career soaring further and further away from him.
The Oscar-winner admitted to taking the hallucinogenic tea 14 times within a two year span.
“Once you drink it you’re going to see yourself in a way you’ve never seen yourself,” he said. “One of the experiences was the individual most hellish psychological experience of my life.”
Smith continued: “I drank, and it usually takes about 45 minutes to kick in. And I’m sitting there and you always feel like, ‘Maybe it won’t kick in this time.’ So I’m drinking and sitting there and then all of a sudden it’s like I start seeing all of my money flying away, and my house is flying away and my career is going away.”
In a panic, the Hollywood star says he began to try to “grab” his belongings.
“My whole life is getting destroyed,” he said. “This is my fear in real life, and I’m in there and I’m wanting to vomit and all of that, and I hear a voice saying: ‘This is what the f— it is. This is what the f— life is.'”
He goes on to describe seeing his daughter Willow cry out for help.
“Then slowly I stopped caring about my money, I just wanted to get to Willow. I stopped caring about my house, I stopped caring about my career,” he shared with Letterman.
After the worst of it was over, Smith recalls the epiphany moment that washed over him. He reached the end of the trip with a refreshed view of life.
“When I came out of it, I realized that anything that happens in my life, I can handle it,” the 53-year-old actor said. “I can handle any person I lose, I can handle anything that goes wrong in my life, I can handle anything in my marriage. I can handle anything that this life has to offer me.”