Can Will Smith Lose 20lbs In 20 Weeks? | Best Shape Of My Life

Are we rolling? You know, I've spent
a lot of years worried about people's perception of me. You know,
what people think I'm like… a certain way or a certain thing
and people… I'm comfortable with me. I am me! This is me, y'all. This is me, y'all. Take it or leave it. This is crazy Will Smith
getting rounds of applause
on Instagram writing, "I'm in the worst shape
of my life." One fan responding, "Thank you. Aren't we all
after this pandemic?" NEWSWOMAN: Will Smith's
dad bod has inspired
a social media movement. I didn't realize quite how big
Willie had gotten. [laughing] I believe you, Will.
I believe you. You can do it, Will. -Yes!
-You can. We're counting on you. WILL: I'm gonna lose 20 pounds,
in 20 weeks. Let us…

Begin. [instrumental music] WILL: Yeah, so,
that was the kind of show
I thought I was making but things turned out
a little bit different. What's going on right now, Will? I think, um… Um… I don't wanna do any of this. I'm finished with
The Best Shape of My Life. Um… WILL: When I started this year I thought I was gonna show
the world how Will Smith
gets in shape. Okay, we're done.
Let's pack it up.

WILL: Uh, yeah. I had no idea what I was
really about to show the world. You are killing me. You don't bring a film
crew and everything, Jas, if you don't have
everything set up. It is cruel to [indistinct] back
on your entire mechanism. We're here on
another stupid day of the whole stupid show
we're trying to do. I was going to be
the best father the planet
had ever seen or I was gonna be dead. [sighs] [instrumental music] I'm at a calorie deficit
and I'm in here crying
every day. God Damn it! [screaming] I'm, I'm done. [instrumental music] Let's, let's set that shot up
so it feels like– The lighting is better here. Oh, wait. So, should we… Should we do the weigh in? Yeah, you can do that one first. Hi, guys. Will Smith body journey.

Happy new year! -Happy new year!
-Happy new year! Okay, so there's a
little bit of understanding that needs to happen
before we do this. So, my physique
in the past has been spectacular in some
circumstances. Alright, so… I did a movie,
I started before Covid. Where I played Richard
Williams, who is Venus
and Serena's father. The character required that I put weight on. So, I put on… weight! You know, the thicky woo-woo. No mistakes.

No mistakes. And then Covid-19 hit. WILL: Covid made
the weight more than the role called for. I folded the tuna in gently. You can't get caught
looking for food while
you're hungry. Nobody is disciplined
enough to be hungry and there's muffins there,
and not eat the muffins. -I have a question.
-Yes. How much weight did the rol– Hold on! Hold on! I don't…

This isn't a…
Is this a Q&A? [chuckles] [sighs] I'm embarrassed. Okay? We gonna keep it real.
I'm embarrassed. Okay? WILL: Over Covid,
at the same time as grazin' through the pantry I'm trying to finish my memoir. This book is about me. The real Will Smith,
the whole Will Smith and nothing but the Will Smith,
so help me God. In that moment… I decided, I made
a silent promise to myself,
to my mother, to my family one day, I would be in charge and this was never ever
gonna happen again. [sighs]
Chapter one. Jesus! [sighs] But honestly,
it was like the more time I had the harder I found it to write. I had serious writer's block and I'm not feeling great. Like mentally or physically.
So… This is a clean slate. I embrace adversity as opportunity. And I know it's within my power
to take anything and make it be the best thing
that ever happened.

So, today is the
first weigh in. Under normal circumstances, you wouldn't see
what you're about to see. Okay? It's secret. [sighs] Oh, jeez, this is bad. This is bad. [sighs] This is bad. Tragedy. So, I'm gonna go to the 200
which I'm sure is it. But it's like
not moving at all at 200. So that's… 210. Hold on. Oh, wait. Hold on.
Wait. That's not too bad. Okay. Okay. It is… that's right about 220.
That's… I mean, 218.
It's like just short of 219. Yeah. That's not too bad, right? Yeah, it's in… 218. Oh, damn.
Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. It wasn't clicked in. Oh, damn. Oh, damn! That's terrible. It was just a little bit off.

Okay. Alright. Okay. Damn. I was… I was…
I was feeling be… Okay, it's 221. It's 221. It's 221. JAS: Why'd you decide
to film all this? Kind of expose yourself
like this. Eh, that's a very
good question. Um… WILL: Yeah,
I guess the cameras for me act like a… What do you call
it in Alcoholics Anonymous where you
have the, the partner… Like what is tha… -Sponsor.
-Uh, a sponsor? Yeah, yeah. So, it's like,
for me, I'm a performer. So the cameras
act like my sponsor.

They keep me accountable. When I know the world
is gonna see it… [indistinct] it's like the greatest
peer pressure there is. I'm not gonna fail
if it's on camera. -Perfect.
-Scene one. Take one. B cam. I'm Dr. Ramani Durvasula. Dr. Ramani and I am
a licensed clinical
psychologist and an author. RAMANI: And I've been working
with Will for about a year now. Bringing the cameras in
is a double-edged sword. I do sometimes wonder
if for Will they allow him
to perform, to be funny and that deflects
from his embarrassment. You know what?
I'm going Marlon Brando.

-Butt and gut.
-[laughing] That's it. That's it. When we can joke about
something, our pain, our problems, our tragedies, it makes us feel that
maybe they're not so bad. WILL: As a part
of my writing process I put together this gathering that I call Book Camp. Chapter 3: Performance. In a nutshell,
I'm gathering some
of the best writers and thinkers,
along with everyone
I write about and putting us all together
in one room to dive deeply
into every word of the book. Here with DJ Jazzy Jeff.
He's in the book.

And I'm telling all
his business. [laughing] Literally all of it. And everybody gets a chance
to respond. I don't think anyone
has ever been this real. [laughs] Sometimes, we have a good time but sometimes it's more like
a therapy session. Most of my memories
of my childhood involve
me being afraid in some way. Afraid of other kids. Afraid of being hurt
or embarrassed. Afraid of being seen as weak. How we decide to confront
our fears that is the person
we become. I decided to be funny. It's the compulsive desire
to constantly please others to keep them laughing
and smiling at all times to redirect all the attention
in the room away from the ugly and
uncomfortable toward the joyful
and beautiful it's there a true entertainer
is born. My, my innerverse
is feeling weird. Like, it's like… It's like being overloaded
right now. It's like…

Whoa. Oh, man. This is really… That's the opening chapter. Next chapter is Mutiny. And you all have
wonderful roles in Mutiny. To me, humor is Will's
first language. So, I want to get a sense
of what my new body is doing at being over 50. It is the ultimate defense. It's the ultimate protection. So, now I'm over 50, right… Uh oh. Ooh! -We get to play.
-Squeezey ball.

The funnier the person,
the greater the pain. Is he faking it? I'm faking. Yeah. There you go. You see that?
You see that? There you go. That's it. Okay. Two-time academy award
nominee right there, ladies and
gentlemen. Will Smith. And scene. RAMANI: For Will the real
psychological trick would be to open up and not crack
the joke. One of the issues
with using humor has a tool to hide what you're really
feeling is that no matter how strong you are, no matter how powerful you are, eventually, the pressure
becomes too much. WILL: I don't wanna do
any of this. My name is Aaron Ferguson. I'm a personal trainer. I've been working with Will
for about… AARON: Well,
this is the ninth year. I've never seen him like this and he's never ever been in
this bad a shape ever. So, sleep obviously getting
as much as you can, but watching the amount
of caffeine you take… Yeah, no, we're not gonna
do that. Pick something else. We need to do this. Yeah, so our goal is
to lose around a pound a week with a new diet,
a new exercise program that method is the
most sustainable. -This is…

Like not a…
simple walk when you're fat.
-[chuckles] AARON: So, the basic framework
is we'll do two days
of resistance training, then we'll take off
and then we'll go back
on two days. Will's a big fan of doing
cardio first thing
in the morning so we'll do some sunrise runs. When I mean some, I mean,
every morning. And then we'll do the
resistance training
a little bit later in the day. So, the first week
of working out this guy… says, "Let's just
get the movement so we
avoid injury." Right? Most people have this picture
of what they did when they were
18 years old and naturally assume that
you're gonna get back to that
particular point. And you probably can, it's just you've got to do
it gradually. We're not shooting that.

No! No! No! Not gonna happen. [grunts] Terrible. [squeaks] I am Legends to I am Luggage. [all laughing] 2021. Best Shape of My Life. Good, nice!
That was pretty solid, huh? Two plates next time.
It's my mind. -Yeah, it's also your knees.
-No, it's not my nays. My nays. My nays are fine, mate. I told ya. It's my bloody mind. You know I just gotta
be aggressive. B-E aggressive. Be aggressive. B-E aggressive. A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E.
Aggressive. B-E aggressive. Whoo! That's how I keep myself going. AARON: His life's never
in balance. He's writing his autobiography and when you're involved
that emotionally in a project it's gonna take a lot of time
and energy. The big challenge with him is energy management. What's the…

Why y'all
letting me have my strap
out like that? [all laughing] Looking like Leroy from Fame. Feel like somebody
gonna throw…
spill some water down on me. [grunting] Good. Good.
Good. Good. Nice. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Perfect. Solid. Holy moly, man. I'm really interested to see
what the result is this week
because he, um… Yeah, he worked really hard. So, I am, I am expecting a,
a decent result. WILL: Impermanence is the law
of the universe. You're gonna change. Your… body's gonna change, your… family's gonna change,
your circumstances are
gonna change. No matter how good you get
a circumstance it's perfect, exactly how you
like it, it's gonna change. Nothing lasts forever. I promised myself that
during the good times I would plant and nurture
the seeds of the next thing. In the same way that my music
career was scorching hot, then icy cold,
I knew the same thing
would one day happen in TV.

I asked myself after
television, what would
be my next thing? There was only one answer.
Movies. Part of the way that
I look at life is you
try to out… Create the cycle of destruction. So, it's like getting ahead
of change. There's nothing I've ever
experienced like changing
your body that teaches the rules
of the universe. Transforming and cultivating
a healthy body and
a healthy mind is really similar to the
macro-process of cultivating
a better world. 222. -222.
-It doesn't feel right. -We might need to check
that surface.
-I put weight on. Should we go run and grab
the other scale? -The like small one and…
-Which one? We can seat the scale
on a hard surface and
re-record… The gym has the smaller scale
though, if we wanted to
run and get it– No. No. Listen, you got to…
Let me see. So that's a failure
for this week. So, from 20 pounds in 20 weeks
it's now become 23 pounds– Pounds.

Um… Oh, here and this asshole
looking at me like… He looking at me like… Shit, during my day this
bullshit wouldn't be happening. Like, during my day… we'd drop that shit
in six weeks. That's what he's saying. He's like, I feel like
I'm disrespecting his legacy. Punching in some stupid numbers
into his little stupid… phone with this whole stupid show
we're trying to do.

Helping people evolve.
That's stupid! It's not stupid. The only thing that can make
a person happy. I know. It doesn't seem to be
working right now, but… [sighs] WILL: What you've come to
understand as "Will Smith" the alien annihilating M.C., 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..