Will Smith has revealed in his upcoming interview with David Letterman that he hallucinated a vision of losing his career and fortune on an ayahuasca drug trip, according to a recently leaked clip posted to Twitter.
Admission for Letterman’s Netflix series My Next Guest needs no introduction was surprisingly timed, as the 53-year-old actor taped the interview before attending the Oscars.
During the ceremony, he slapped presenter Chris Rock on stage after he made a joke referencing his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair loss, and he has since delayed several high-profile projects.
Foreshadowing: Will Smith has revealed in his upcoming interview with David Letterman that he hallucinated a vision of losing his career and fortune on an ayahuasca trip, but he recorded it before his shocking Oscar slap
Smith opens the excerpt by admitting he was “terrified” about taking ayahuasca, a drink native to South America brewed from plants that induce a psychedelic experience.
People who consume the drink report hallucinations and visions, sometimes dramatic, believed to have therapeutic effects.
“I decided it was something that, you know, I wanted to try,” the actor said after researching the drug.
He described the high as creating two realities that are both “100% present” at the same time: “It doesn’t overlap with this reality. They are completely separate.
While describing his vision of his career implosion, he called it “the most hellish individual psychological experience of my life”.
Timing: The clip foreshadowed Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars after the comic made a joke referencing his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair loss; seen on March 27 in Hollywood
Torturous: In the clip, which was leaked early on Twitter from a phone recording, Smith said he had “the most hellish psychological experience of my life” while imagining the implosion of his career
He joked, “You always thought, ‘Maybe it won’t go off this time,’ because he said the drink’s hallucinatory properties didn’t kick in for about 45 minutes.
But then, “All of a sudden, it’s like I see all my money gone,” he told a delighted Letterman.
“And my house flies away. And my career is over,” he continued. “And I’m trying to, like, grab my money and my career. My whole life is being destroyed.
The host had him confirm that the vision represented his “fear in real life”.
Smith shared that he felt the urge to vomit – a common symptom of ayahuasca use – before hearing a voice in his head say menacingly, “That’s what it is. . This is the fucking life.
Disappeared: ‘All of a sudden it’s like I see all my money gone,’ he told a delighted Letterman. “And my house flies away. And my career is gone, he said
Scary: Smith shared that he felt the urge to vomit – a symptom of using ayahuasca – before hearing a voice in his head say menacingly: ‘This is what it is .” This is the fucking life’
The vision became even more unsettling for Smith after he heard his daughter Willow Smith, 21, call out to him in the distance in anguished cries of ‘Daddy, help me! Daddy! not help?”
He shouted back, “I don’t see,” before the shaman overseeing his journey told him to relax, patted his back, and sat him down.
Smith, who praised his character Richard Williams as a “fierce defender of his family” in his Oscars acceptance speech, seemed able to forget his imagined career woes as he defended his own family.
“Then slowly I stopped caring about my money, I just wanted to join Willow,” he said. “I stopped caring about my house, my career.”
Saving his family: Smith, who praised his character Richard Williams as a ‘fierce defender of his family’ in his Oscars acceptance speech, seemed able to forget his imagined career woes as he defended his own family
He said he had “settled”, although “the voice was still 100 percent”.
‘I can still hear Willow screaming. My money always flies away, but I will – he says, miming taking deep breaths.
“And I’m totally calm, even if the hell is going on in my head. When I came out of it, I realized that whatever happens in my life, I can handle it.
“I can handle anyone I lose, I can handle anything that’s wrong with my life, I can handle anything in my marriage. I can handle whatever his life has to offer me,” he said.
The clip ended with Smith trying to reassure herself that what was in the vision wouldn’t happen, though it was particularly ironic considering the path her career would take shortly after the interview.
“First of all, 99% of the bullshit you worry about never happens, adding that the vast majority of ‘your pain and misery is all self-generated – it’s not real’.
‘I can still hear Willow screaming. My money always flies away, but I will – he says, miming taking deep breaths. “And I’m totally calm, even if the hell is going on in my head.”
Bad timing: The clip ended with Smith trying to reassure himself that what was in the vision wouldn’t happen, although it was particularly ironic given the path his career would take shortly after the interview
After slapping Rock at the Oscars, Smith managed to hang out at night and won his first Oscar for his lead role in King Richard, but soon faced consequences within the Academy.
The actor resigned from the body, which means he will no longer be able to vote for the awards, and he was subsequently banned from all Academy events for a decade, which means he will not be able to attend at the ceremony during this period, although he can still be nominated or win an award.
Smith kept a low profile after the incident, although he traveled to Mumbai, India last month to focus on spirituality, yoga and meditation, People reported.
Will was pictured in January filming the interview with Letterman.
He’s part of a stack of interviewees for the talk show icon, including Cardi B, Billie Eilish, Ryan Reynolds, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Kevin Durant. The fourth season of the series will be released on May 20 on Netflix.
Banned: After his Oscar slap, Smith resigned from the Academy, and this subsequently banned him from the Academy Awards and all other Academy events for ten years; seen on March 27 in Hollywood