Will Smith Admits That ‘After Earth’ Left Him ‘Devastated’ About His Career

Will Smith has recently revealed his disappointment with his most recent film. The actor starred in the 2013 sci-fi film After Earth alongside his son and protege Jaden Smith.

In a recent interview with Esquire, Will Smith stated that After Earth was a “painful failure.” The Sony and Columbia Pictures film, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, cost $130 million to create but only brought in $60.5 million in the United States, according to Buisness Insider. The film later made $243.8 million worldwide, but it was followed by horrific reviews. Fans of Will Smith, called it “terrible” while critics said his talented was wasted in a bad film.

Watched after earth last night… Could not believe how bad it was for a will smith film.. Terrible.

— lawson d'ath (@lawsondath92) June 12, 2014

Will Smith expressed that his true concern for the bad reviews, was his co-star, son Jaden Smith. The 16-year-old is just making a name for himself in Hollywood.

The film also caused Will to rethink his career decisions. In his interview, he admitted to exactly how the result of After Earth made him feel.

“That was excruciating.”

Will continued, comparing After Earth to another famous dud, Wild Wild West. The film’s soundtrack sold well, but the movie completely missed the mark. Smith said that After Earth was far worse because Jaden Smith was involved. Smith also explained how failure had become his motivation. He recently announced the desire to re-enter the music scene and he says that failure was the reason.

“What I learned from that failure is how you win. I got reinvigorated after the failure of ‘After Earth.’ I stopped working for a year and a half. I had to dive into why it was so important for me to have No. 1 movies.”

After pondering on his question, Will Smith explained that it was due to the receipt of tragic news that he was able to make peace with the After Earth dud.

“After Earth’ comes out, I get the box office numbers on Monday and I was devastated for about 24 minutes, and then my phone rang and I found out my father had cancer. That put it in perspective — viciously.”

According to Will Smith, family troubles made everything else seem meaningless. It was the point where he realized that he needed to make some life changes.

“And that Monday started the new phase of my life, a new concept: Only love is going to fill that hole. You can’t win enough, you can’t have enough money, you can’t succeed enough. There is not enough. The only thing that will ever satiate that existential thirst is love. And I just remember that day I made the shift from wanting to be a winner to wanting to have the most powerful, deep, and beautiful relationships I could possibly have.”

Will is currently rumored to be working on music with Kanye West and his rapper son, Jaden Smith. Will Smith’s latest film Focus, will open in theaters on February 27.

[Image via Collider]