Will Smith saw his work fall apart while tripping on ayahuasca ahead of the Oscars moment that has since destabilised his career.
The actor, who infamously slapped Oscars presenter Chris Rock on stage in March over a joke that he took offence to, revealed that he had a vision that showed his career, family life and finances destroyed.
Appearing as a guest on My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman before the 2022 Oscars awards ceremony, Smith recalled his experience taking ayahuasca, a psychoactive herbal drink with powerful hallucinogenic properties.
“Once you drink it you’re going to see yourself in a way you’ve never seen yourself,” he told Letterman. “One of the experiences was the individual most hellish psychological experience of my life.
“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.”
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The star, who won the Best Actor Academy Award for King Richard, said that he then tried to “grab” at his money in the vision. “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 fuck it is. This is what the fuck life is,'” he said.
Smith concluded: “When I came out of it, I realised that anything that happens in my life, I can handle it. 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.”
Smith resigned from the Academy after the slapping incident and was later banned from attending all Academy events for the next decade.
Development on film projects connected to the actor including Netflix’s Fast And Loose, have reportedly been halted following his altercation with Rock.
In others news, Oscars co-host Wanda Sykes has said that she’s “still traumatised” by Smith slapping Rock at the ceremony. The comedian told a crowd at a stand-up show in Orlando, Florida earlier this month that she was appalled that the actor was allowed to remain at the event and accept his Best Actor award following the incident.