Book Review: "Will" by Will Smith and Mark Manson

I've read many autobiographies by entertainers in my time. My favourites include, but are not limited to: My Autobiography by Charlie Chaplin, Moonwalk by Michael Jackson, Chronicles: Volume 1 by Bob Dylan, Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen and obviously, Me: Stories of My Life by Katharine Hepburn, Lady Sings the Blues by Billie Holiday and finally, The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher. Apart from loving to read about actors who have been through some hardships and musicians who were barred from this, that and the other because of circumstance or over something they could not control - autobiographies are a useful way to engage with a person's voice. When you read an autobiography it needs to feel like the person who wrote it is reading it to you, or it becomes useless. The only real way to read an autobiography is to have the person's voice in your head so that you can interact with their character.

I would say that this is wholeheartedly true for this book - the autobiography of rapper and Hollywood actor, Will Smith.

The book starts off with his childhood, in fact it starts off with the very image of Will Smith's father forcing him and his brother to relay a wall. At this time both boys are below teen years and so, it takes them just about a year to complete. Will Smith delves deeply into the character of his father, painting him as a violent and ill-tempered man who was an alcoholic and a domestic abuser, but at the same time gives him the brush of 'discipline'. This discipline, no matter how harsh, constantly reappears as a motif throughout the autobiography and far past the section on his father's death shortly after the filming of Collateral Beauty (2016).

We get to see Will Smith in a new way as well, not just as the rapper and Hollywood actor. We get to witness his pre-teen and teen years in which he was a self-described skinny and awkward child. In a predominately white place, he would stand out and be open to ridicule and bullying - which makes one of the traits of his personality (which he goes into detail about) as being 'afraid' or 'cowardly'.

We also get frequent images of Will Smith's mother painted as a woman who believes wholeheartedly in education being the strongest power on the planet. The point of tension never really comes at all until Will Smith states to his mother that he does not want to be in education and he would rather be a rapper. His parents give him a year to 'make it' in rap and if he doesn't he must agree to return to education. That was the year Will Smith got famous for rap music with the constant question in the back of the reader's mind: What would have happened if he didn't?

Will Smith's successes are often tainted by his deep fears of failure and his anxiety about perfection. When the filming for The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990-1996) begins, we see a very anxious Will Smith trying his best not to screw up the lines of his character. We see this in tandem with him working on another album, winning music awards and being famous. The example of the requirement for perfection being the scene in which Will Smith's eponymous character talks about his father walking out on him to his uncle portrayed by the late James Avery. At the end of the scene, the protagonist cries and embraces his uncle whilst Avery whispers into Will Smith's ear: 'That's fucking acting.' This is a brilliant part of the book which displays a deep connection to the work but also it displays how much Will Smith cared about the performance and not just the lines. If you have seen this episode in the show it makes far more sense as well.

Through his work and his personal life in which he covers up until the present day, we get a deep character analysis of a man who is considered to be a massive blockbuster star. We see both good and bad - but most of what we see is unfiltered and if you are a fan of Will Smith's - then you never would have guessed that his life would be filled with such incredible hardship.