Page 64 - Will Smith: A Biography of a Rapper Turned Movie Star

Will Smith
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The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reached a milestone when
its one hundredth new episode was aired on September
19, 1994. The episode was titled, “What’s Will Got to Do
With It?”—a takeoff on a famous song by singer Tina
Turner: “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” The plot
centered on Will’s trying to manage the singing career
of a rising young star, his cousin Ashley. In a statement
to the press marking the one hundredth episode, Smith
said that he wanted to act in another hundred episodes
and make them as good as the first hundred.
By that time, several other African-American actors were
starring in weekly television series. Medina praised Smith’s
example, saying, “Will opened the door for a lot of young
black artists and performers, like Martin [Lawrence] and
Queen Latifah, to enter a formerly conservative medium.”3
As for his personal life, Smith wanted to spend as much
time with Trey as possible. He brought his son to the set of
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, where the rest of the cast thought
he was a cute and well-behaved child. When the cameras
started rolling, Trey would put his finger on his lips and
whisper “Shhhh.”
But Smith’s sixteen-hour workdays were putting too
much stress on his marriage. Smith later said, “We had a
new son, and my career was taking off. There was a lot of
pressure that didn’t allow the marriage to blossom. You
know how you’re on the freeway and you see that one car
on the side of the road? Thousands of cars drive by it.
Well, every once in a while it’s your turn to be broken