Will Smith Had a Vision That He Was Going to Lose His Career: ‘I Can Handle It’

While sitting down with David Letterman, Will Smith revealed he had a vision. In that vision, Smith said he saw what his life would be like if he had lost his career.

Ironically enough, this vision occurred before the Oscars, where Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock in the face for making a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s bald head. Smith shared his revelation with Letterman on Letterman’s Netflix series, My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.

Will Smith Had a Vision That He Was Going to Lose His Career

While speaking with Letterman, Will Smith talked about using comedy as a coping mechanism, especially when it comes to reliving childhood trauma. He admits that the insecurities that came from that trauma were a driving force behind his career for a long time.

“I think the drive I had in my career to succeed with the life-or-death energy behind winning, I think it was fueled largely by a certain insecurity,” he said. “And the trauma of the insecurity, I think, made me have to win. Period.”

As Smith explained in his latest book, he always thought of himself as a coward after witnessing his father beat up his mother. Then one day, he released his commitment to success was unhealthy. 

In order to sift through the “madness of what was going on inside his head,” he went 14 days without talking. And after that, he decided to take a few years off from work to embark on a spiritual journey.

According to Smith, that spiritual journey was aided by ayahuasca, a psychedelic drug known for its spiritual and therapeutic qualities. It was during one of those trips that he had this vision of everything flying away.

“All of a sudden, it’s like I start seeing all of my money flying away,” he recalled. “And my house is flying away. And my career is going away. And I’m trying to, like, grab for my money and my career. My whole life is getting destroyed.”

As the vision continued, Smith continued with a voice telling him, “This is what the f— it is. This is what the f— life is.” The voice then morphed into his daughter Willow’s voice, saying, “Daddy, help me! How come you won’t help me?”

That’s when the shaman then stepped in to calm Smith down. It was at that moment that Smith said he “stopped caring about my money. I just wanted to get to Willow. I stopped caring about my house, about my career.”

RELATED: Chris Rock Updates Crowd on His Hearing and Shares When He Plans to Openly Talk About Being Slapped By Will Smith

However, while Smith admits he “realized that anything that happens in my life, I can handle it,” he told Letterman that losing his career and money, “It’s my fear.”

Will Smith is currently on another spiritual journey following his outburst at the Oscars. However, this interview with Letterman, while in no way related to the Oscars, seems to point at some of the things that may have inspired the outburst. 

Namely, Smith’s traumatic experience of not sticking up for his mother some decades ago as his father assaulted her. “First of all, ninety-nine percent of the s— you worry about never happens,” he told Letterman. “Ninety-nine percent of your pain and misery is all self-generated. It’s not real.”