Will Smith Discusses 'Concussion': His Most Complicated Role to Date

Despite being the time of year for holiday-themed films, this Christmas you can expect one certain movie to resonate among many NFL fans. Concussion, led by Will Smith playing the role of Nigerian neuropathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu, comes to discover the scary truth behind what the sport of football has been doing to its current and former players. Gaining inspiration from a GQ article dated back to 2009 by Jeanne Marie Laskas (also the author of Concussion), the author had the opportunity to meet Smith during the filming of the movie and discuss the role further. You can check out some of their conversation about the film, the game of football, and more below as well as read it in full here.

Laskas: I want to hear about your impressions of the movie.

Smith: As an actor, I look at it and it’s a beautiful piece of art—artistically and aesthetically. Then there’s the story, this man’s life. The pain and losses and struggles and trials and tribulations.
Laskas: Do you feel like it’s like your most complicated role that you’ve had?

Smith: Definitely the most complicated emotionally, because it became hard for me as an actor to play scenes where a character has a different perspective than me. It was extremely relatable, because I understood what all the characters are going through, but it was brutal and it was exhausting.

Laskas: When you look at this role like kind of in the trajectory of your career, does this represent something for you as an artist, do you think?

Smith: Absolutely. But I’ve never really done anything that didn’t have a purpose for me. I grew up in the church, Resurrection Baptist Church in Philadelphia, and my grandmother was that grandmother at the church, the one always at the church, always putting on the events. It was deeply instilled in me that every action, everything I create, everything I say and do in the world is inexorably bound to the lives of everybody I come in contact with—and it’s my responsibility to put things into the world that have a positive influence on humanity.

Laskas: You know, what’s funny is when I first saw you on set, you were getting ready to go, in your scrubs, and I was like, Oh, my god, he like holds his shoulders like Bennet.

Smith: It’s really interesting when you play someone who is alive—it’s a double-edged sword. The pro is that you get to ask questions, you don’t have to make things up. The con is that people tend to expect an imitation versus an interpretation.

Laskas: As you prepare to talk about this movie now, what are you going to do with the question of whether you’d now let your kid play football?

Smith: You know, I’ve never had to pose that question to myself.

Laskas: It’s tough. Obama says he wouldn’t. It’s just gonna keep coming up—and the subject loses all its nuance when you put it like that.

Smith: I think for me, as a parent, once my children are thoroughly informed, they can make the decisions that they want to make. The only thing that I demand is a complete comprehension [of the information].