Don't get us wrong. We love Will Smith just as much as the next person. Particularly if the next person is waiting in line at the movie theater on July 4th weekend.
But is it just us, or has he been spending a bit too much time in the self-help section lately? Hey, at least there's finally a prime contender to take over for Oprah Winfrey when she adioses off daytime next fall.
But Smith, accompanied by wife Jada Pinkett Smith, kids Trey, Jaden and Willow, his mother, his ex-wife and her new husband (phew) all stopped by The Oprah Winfrey Show today and proved that no matter how enlightened their brood has become, they still know how to bring the funny.
And the saucy.
When Winfrey asked the couple—whom she dubbed the head of Hollywood's First Family—how they manage to keep the spark alive after more than 12 years of marriage (and nearly 20 years together), things got a little spicy.
"How saucy do you want to get, Oprah?" Jada asked, before Will interjected, "Hey, hey, we got kids in the green room."
Not to mention his mother, front row center.
"Keep it spontaneous," Jada said. "I surprise him. He's a thinker. He's always thinking. I just, I always surprise him…Now I don't know if you want to get in on how I surprise him…
"During the day I might send a sexy picture of some sort…If he's on set with me, we might take a break."
As this is daytime, the chit-chat stopped there.
As for Will, Jada said people would be most surprised to find out that he's "extremely sensitive. And not just in feelings, but in intuition."
The couple also talked about how they have a business plan for their family, and while Will and Jada sometimes (OK, most of the time) veered into statements like, "In order to reach the type of excellence…you have to find and focus on the individual and help them live up to their excellence" (Will) and, "At the end of the day we have to look past our own selfish desires. What can we do to facilitate the group, to facilitate the children…how do we incorporate all this talent that we have in our family to create an environment where all our dreams can come true," (Jada), their kids seemed to take a more grounded approach to the concept.
"My parents embarrass me all the time," Jaden said, who added that his dad "pulls his pants down"—"his" meaning Will's not Jaden's—all the time.
Well, no one can be enlightened 24/7, right?
Still, while Jaden, who will star alongside Jackie Chan in next month's The Kung Fu Kid The Karate Kid remake, has already gotten a taste for the spotlight, his parents like to keep things in perspective for the 11-year-old.
"I tell the kids all the time, it's like, Mommy and Daddy are rich, y'all are broke," Will said. "We don't allow them to just sit around. We talk about the concept of the group and the necessity of adding to the family, and then the neighborhood, then humanity."
And despite his ability to talk a very, very good game, Will proved that movie stars really are just like us! Well, except for their superior gene pool and million-dollar bank accounts. But the insecurities are the same!
"No matter how successful you get, it's really difficult to shake your mindset," he said. "I still have a poor person mentality. I can't shake it and it gets really detrimental. It's really difficult to shake. When I go to sleep at night right now, I'm as financially nervous as I was 20 years ago."
When he turned to Oprah for commiseration, it was clear she did not harbor the same fears.
"You're doing a little more than us," Will said.
But as the family was ostensibly there to talk about Jaden's martial arts flick, he got the lion's share of the kids' screen time, answering Oprah's questions about how it felt to work out and (awww!) film his first onscreen kiss.
"I'm pretty ripped," he said. "I wasn't as ripped as I am now. I was like, how he looked in I Am Legend, I looked like that."
"I Am Little," joked Will. And as for that kiss query, Jaden continued to prove that humility might not exactly be his forte.
"Um, I mean, I'm good at kissing, so…"
He is his father's son.