Will Smith, in a trailer for his new YouTube docuseries, opened up about considering suicide during his recent multi-week journey to get in “the best shape” of his life.
The Philadelphia-born rapper and actor on Friday gave fans a sneak-peek at his upcoming six-part series: “Will Smith: The Best Shape Of My Life.” Episodes one and two will be released on Nov. 8.
In the official trailer, Smith said he intended the journey to be centered around improving his physical health, but over the course of losing 20 lbs in 20 weeks, he became more in touch with his mental and emotional health as well.
“This began as a journey to get into the best shape of my life,” Smith said. “When I started this show I thought I was getting into the best shape of my life, physically. But mentally, I was somewhere else and, I ended up discovering a whole lot of hidden things about myself.”
“That was the only time in my life that I ever considered suicide,” he is shown saying during a clip of a conversation with his family.
“Now I’m about to show the world, how little I know about myself,” Smith said.
The doc also follows Smith as he writes his upcoming memoir “WILL,” co-written by Mark Manson, the co-author of the best-selling book “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck.” The book is slated for release on Nov. 9 with Penguin Random House.
The Grammy-winner said the process of writing the book was “exposing a lot of things” regarding his thoughts and feelings about his life as well as “so many things that people don’t know” about him.
The story follows his “transformation from a fearful child in a tense West Philadelphia home to one of the biggest rap stars of his era and then one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood history, with a string of box office successes that will likely never be broken,” according to the memoir’s website.
The final outcome is a product of Smith’s “profound journey” to “self-knowledge” and touches on his family being at the height of the entertainment industry but feeling “more like star performers in his circus, a seven-days-a-week job they hadn’t signed up for.”
“What you’ve come to understand as Will Smith, the alien annihilating MC, bigger than life movie star, is largely a construction, a carefully crafted and honed character designed to protect myself, to hide myself from the world, to hide the coward,” he said in the docuseries trailer.
Following the release of the first two episodes, the remaining four will come out one at a time each following day in succession until Nov. 12.
Resources for those at risk of suicide are available by dialing the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255, texting TALK to 741741, and visiting SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.
Watch the trailer for “Best Shape Of My Life” below.
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