Will+Smith

Will Smith by Shon Aggison



**Biography**

Willard Christopher Smith Jr., better known as Will Smith, was born September 25, 1968, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His mother, Caroline, worked for Philadelphia school board and his father, Willard Christopher Smith, Sr., owned a refrigeration company. In the Smith family, Will was the second of four children. His natural charm earned him the nickname “Prince” at Overbrook High School in Philadelphia. Unlike his character on “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”, his neighborhood and school in Philadelphia was Middle-Class and predominately white. Even though Will’s friends were mostly black, he learned how to be liked by everyone.

Smith began rapping at the age of 12 and teamed up with Jeff Townes, better known as DJ Jazzy Jeff. Their act was considered comical, quirky, and clean, which was a contrast to the popular Gangsta Rap of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. Some of their hits include; “Girls Ain’t Nothing But Trouble”, “Parents Just Don’t Understand”, and “Summertime”. Even though, the Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff became very successful almost immediately, Will lost his fortune because he forgot to pay his taxes and was forced to start over after the IRS cleaned him out. This wasn’t a problem because his success lead to his own show entitled, “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”. The show ran for six seasons and propelled Will’s career into blockbuster movies.

He started off with a minor role in “Where The Day Takes You” and then went on to have bigger roles in “Made in America’ and “Six Degrees of Separation”. Will then was the main actor, along with Martin Lawrence, in “Bad Boys”. After this role, Will had proven that he was a big time actor. Some of his most notable movies include; “Independence Day”, “Men in Black”, “Ali”, “Men in Black II”, “Bad Boys II”, “I Am Legend”, and “Hancock”. Smith also started his own movie production company in the late-90’s called Overbrook Entertainment, which was named after his high school.

Will was first married to Sheree Zampino in 1992 and they had one child, Willard Christopher Smith III. They divorced in 1995 and Will married actress Jada Pinkett in 1997. Will and Jada gave birth to Jaden Christopher Syre Smith and Willow Camille Reign Smith. Will Smith and his family are seen a superstar family with his children now having successful music and acting careers of their own.

**Trait Approach to Personality**

The most common approach to personality, at least among popular culture, is the trait approach. One of the biggest developments of this approach is known as the “Big Five” The Big Five are based on five dimensions that are believed to be the most common trait approaches to personality. These dimensions are Extroversion, Agreeableness, Conscientious, Neuroticism, and Openness. This theory-based approach started in the 1960’s but didn’t start to gain popular until the 1980’s.

The extroversion dimension includes enthusiasm, dominance, and sociability. People that are high on this dimension are said to be energetic, talkative, and extroverted. Introverted people, or people that are low on this dimension, are described as shy, submissive and quiet. It goes without saying that most of the characters that Will Smith portrays are high on extroversion and this is because he is also high on extroversion. In an article talking about his presence on the set of “Wild Wild West”, he was described as “a man a whole lot of front” and his “energetic personality shakes the room”. When you watch Will Smith do interviews for movies or on the red carpet he is always very lively and enthusiastic.

To compliment Smith’s extroverted-style, he is also high on agreeableness. Agreeableness is how friendly, cooperative, and warm someone is and those that are low on this dimension are considered cold and unkind. Because of Will’s natural charm, he was given the nickname “Prince” at his high school and he was liked by pretty much everyone. It is safe to say that Will has always been extroverted and high on agreeableness but his conscientiousness isn’t that clear.

The conscientiousness dimension describes dependability, cautiousness and responsibility. When Will career first started, it doesn’t seem that he was high on this dimension due to his trouble with the IRS. He forgot to pay his taxes and wasted his money on material things. Someone could easily say that he was irresponsible and thus low on conscientious. Yet now as a husband, father, and international movie star/producer, he is more reliable and organized so he is seen more as a person with high conscientiousness.

There’s has only been a few instances that Will Smith has been described as nervous or worrisome. One of those events was when he called in to audition for “A Different World” and “The Cosby Show”. Another case in point was when he needed to do a love scene with Rosario Dawson in “Seven Pounds”. It most cases Will is described as calm and content, thus he can seen as the low on the neuroticism dimension. This dimension is how emotionally stable and anxious a person is.

Openness is the final dimension of the Big Five and people high on openness are seen as imaginative, witty, original, and artistic. This is a perfect description of Will Smith. His wittiness has been displayed in most of movies, interviews and his TV show. His artistic ability has been portrayed in his music with DJ Jazzy Jeff and in his solo career. Most of all, nothing about Will Smith is plain or simple, which are the characteristics of people whom are low in the openness dimension.

**Humanistic and Existential Aspects of Personality**

Humanism is a philosophical movement that emphasizes the personal worth of the individual and the importance of human values. Existentialism is an area of philosophy concerned with the meaning of human existence. The humanistic/existential approach is built on these two areas of philosophy. A major aspect of this approach is the human potential movement. This movement encouraged people to realize their inner potential and pushes people to self-actualization. Self-actualized people are spiritual fulfilled, comfortable with themselves, and creative. These are things that can be said about Will Smith and also he has fulfilled all of the previous needs on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Those needs include; physiological needs, safety needs, belongingness/love needs, and esteem needs. Once Will fulfilled all of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, he’s career took off. He went from rapper to TV star to movie star and then started his own production company. This success can be attributed to creativity and comfortably with himself and his abilities.

Self-actualized people are also described as being independent, resistant to social pressures, acceptant of others and love freedom. Some example of self-actualized people includes Albert Einstein, Dr. Martin Luther King, Gandhi, and Abraham Lincoln. All of these people can be said to be leaders, revolutionist, and intelligent. Will Smith studies a lot of different subjects and has made become a very well-rounded person. Looking at the examples of people who are considered to be self-actualized are well-rounded, tried to gain more knowledge about the world, and try to always improve themselves. In an interview on Ellen Degeneres, Will reveals these attributes about himself and it is shown that he sees bigger and better things for the world as those examples of self-actualized people did.

**Discussion**

Will Smith very energetic and charismatic person on and off the screen. His dynamic personality draws attention to himself wherever he goes. Will’s high extroversion, agreeableness, conscientious, openness and low neuroticism have brought him success in music and in film. Also, being a self-actualized has pushed him to continue to succeed in numerous ventures, further improve himself and see the world in a whole new light.

**References** code Degeneres, E. L. (2008, May 28). Will Smith on Ellen - Part 2 [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg35w34nztc&feature=related code

Friedman, H.S. & Schustack, M.W. (2009). // Personality // (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson Higher Education code Maloney, A. (2008, December 8). Shy Will is Dawson's geek. Retrieved from http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/film/2016069/Sex-Scene-made-Will-Nervous.html code

Wills, D. (n.d.). Will Smith - Biography. In //Talk Talk//. Retrieved April 2011, from <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">http://www.talktalk.co.uk/entertainment/film/biography/artist/will-smith/biography/133?page=1

code <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Will Smith - Interviews. (n.d.). //Talk Talk//. Retrieved April 2011, from http://www.talktalk.co.uk/ entertainment/film/interviews/will_smith.html code

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code <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Will Smith. (n.d.). //People//. Retrieved April, 2011, from http://www.people.com/people/will_smith code