Will Smith reveals in his forthcoming memoir that he once contemplated killing his father.
He writes in an excerpt published in People, “When I was nine years old, I watched my father punch my mother in the side of the head so hard that she collapsed. I saw her spit blood. That moment in that bedroom, probably more than any other moment in my life, has defined who I am.”
Although the Men In Black star says his father, William Carroll Smith Sr., was “at every game, play and recital” when he was growing up, their relationship was complicated and the trauma of that moment stayed with him forever.
Decades later, when Will Sr. was recovering from cancer, Smith considered shoving his father down the stairs.
He recalls “As a child I'd always told myself that I would one day avenge my mother. That when I was big enough, when I was strong enough, when I was no longer a coward, I would slay him.”
Instead, he helped his old man to the bathroom and Will Sr. lived another 16 years, dying in 2016.
Will, the 53-year-old actor’s new memoir will be released on Nov. 9th.