Viewers noticed "eerie foreshadowing" as Will Smith revealed he once hallucinated that he would lose his life and career in an interview recorded before the infamous Oscars incident.
The 53-year-old King Richard actor talked about his childhood, family life, and career in an hour-long interview with David Letterman for his Netflix series My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.
The Hollywood star revealed to the 75-year-old talk show host that he'd had a premonition while under the effects of ayahuasca – an illegal herbal drink with hallucinogenic properties.
Smith said: "I drank, and it usually takes about 45 minutes to kick in. And I'm sitting there and you always feel like, 'Maybe it won't kick in this time.' So I'm drinking and sitting there and then all of a sudden it's like I start seeing all of my money flying away, and my house is flying away and my career is going away."
Watch a clip from the interview below:Although the Fresh Prince star disclosed that he tried the psychedelic 14 times over the course of two years, he recalled one night after taking it as "the individual most hellish psychological experience of my life."
At one point in his vision, he said he heard his daughter Willow reaching out for help, which forced him to have a wake-up call. He described his panic as he glimpsed his "whole life getting destroyed" which he depicted as his worst fear.
"Then slowly, I stopped caring about my money, I just wanted to get to Willow," he explained. "I stopped caring about my house, I stopped caring about my career."
The actor said that after the substance wore off, he had a realization: "Anything that happens in my life, I can handle it."
He added: "I can handle any person I lose, I can handle anything that goes wrong in my life, I can handle anything in my marriage. I can handle anything that this life has to offer me."
During the interview, Smith also spoke about a time in his life when he felt like he didn't do enough to defend a family member.
"The first line of the first chapter is, ‘I’ve always thought of myself as a coward,'” Smith explained to Letterman. "When I was nine years old, I saw my father beat up my mother, and I didn’t do anything. And that just left a traumatic impression of myself as a coward."
"Life is so exciting to me right now, because I can reach people differently than I’ve ever been able to reach people, largely because of my pain," he said. "I’m really ready to dive into my art in a way that I think will be hopefully fulfilling for me and helpful for the human family."
Viewers commented on the interview and were quick to point out just how bizarre Smith's vision, as well as his comments about his father, was in the wake of the 2022 Academy Awards.
One user said: "Whew.....this interview with Will Smith on David Letterman's show on Netflix is something else. It's almost like he knew what was coming with his most recent events."
Another chimed in and wrote: "Watched #WillSmith's interview with Letterman. Wow. Some unfortunate foreshadowing there."
A third commented: "The pre-Oscars Will Smith interview with Letterman on his Netflix series... kind of jaw-dropping. The ayahuasca story! Holy cow. Eerie. Anyway."
At the prestigious event on March 27, Chris Rock presented the award for Best Documentary, and while on stage, he made a joke about the short haircut of Jada Pinkett Smith, which angered her husband.
Smith shouted: "Keep my wife’s name out of your f***ing mouth!" — twice — after returning to his seat. Later on, he won Best Actor for his role in King Richard.
Following the altercation, the actor publicly apologized, and on April 1, he resigned from the Academy. However, on April 8, the academy moved to ban Smith from Oscar ceremonies for the next 10 years and a number of his upcoming projects are axed.
Smith's interview with Letterman can be watched on Netflix.