Following the Oscar-slap, Will Smith's popularity took a huge hit. Suddenly, his good deeds like helping out Bruce Willis were forgotten about, instead, everyone eagerly awaited his Chris Rock apology video, one that received mixed reactions.
During his rise to the top, Will Smith got lots of advice, including words of encouragement from Arnold Schwarzenegger himself.
Although Arnold attempted to motivate Smith, it turned into an obsession for the MIB actor behind the scenes. In addition, it sparked a quiet feud with Tom Cruise for success, let's take a look at how it all went down.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's Career Advice For Will Smith In 1996 Sent The Actor On A Different Path
Eager to become a big star in Hollywood, Will Smith was never short on effort, becoming a workhorse in the '90s and into the 2000s.
Back in 1996, he was given a big jolt while overseas at Planet Hollywood alongside some of the biggest stars of the game, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and Bruce Willis.
When asking for advice, Arnold sent Will Smith on a different path. Suddenly, the Fresh Prince star had a totally different perspective on what it was going to take to become the biggest star in all of Hollywood.
"You are not a movie star if your movies are only successful in America. You are not a movie star until every person in every country on earth knows who you are. You have to travel the globe, shake every hand, kiss every baby. Think of yourself as a politician running for Biggest Movie Star in the World," those were Arnold's words, according to Smith's memoir.
The advice was meant to be encouraging, however, for Smith, it would lead to the actor into obsessive behavior, especially when it came to surpassing one of Hollywood's top stars.
Will Smith Became Obsessed Over Surpassing Tom Cruise As A Major Global Star
Looking at career success from a global standpoint, Will Smith examined the career of none other than Tom Cruise. Smith quickly learned that the actor did a fantastic job at promoting his films worldwide.
In order to match this, Smith wanted to know how much time Cruise was putting in to promote movies, and the actor would try to double that.
"I started to notice how much other actors hate traveling, press, and promoting. It seemed like utter insanity to me," Smith wrote.
"I started quietly monitoring all of Tom's global promotional activities," Smith recalled in his memoir. "When I arrived in a country to promote my movie, I would ask the local movie executives to give me Tom's promotional schedule. And I vowed to do two hours more than whatever he did in every country."
According to his words with Insider, the MIB actor was going mad behind the scenes, realizing that matching this type of schedule was largely impossible.
"Unfortunately, Tom Cruise is either a cyborg, or there are six of him," he said. "I was receiving reports of four-and-a-half-hour stretches on red carpets in Paris, London, Tokyo … In Berlin, Tom literally signed every single autograph until there was no one else who wanted one. Tom Cruise's global promotions were the individual best in Hollywood."
Eventually, Smith found a different kind of path to the top.
Music Turned Out To Be Will Smith's Greatest Differentiator
What did likes of Cruise, Stallone, Schwarzenegger and Willis lack compared to Smith? This turned out to be a background in music. According to Smith, this factor accelerated his globally popularity in a huge way, unlike the others.
"Tom couldn't do that — neither could Arnold, Bruce, or Sly," he said. "I'd found my way out of the entertainment news segment and into headline news. And once your movie moves from entertainment to news, it's no longer a movie — it's a cultural phenomenon."
With a net worth of over $350 million, it is safe to say the actor succeeded. Sure, his situation post-Oscars might not be the greatest at the moment but given how much he has already overcome throughout his career, we really can't bet against Smith and a career revival.