Will Smith says that prejudice could not have affected his massively successful acting career because, at the end of the day, “everybody is prejudiced” – but “racism is actually rare,” the star notes, and “America is the only place on Earth” that allows “people that look like” him the opportunity to be a star.
The actor was interviewed with five other A-listers for
The Hollywood Reporter‘s
Actor Roundtable conversation when he was asked whether prejudice had affected his decades-long acting career.
“My wife and I were just having this conversation, and we were going to the dictionary for ‘prejudice’ versus ‘racism,'” Smith replied, adding:
Everybody is prejudiced. Everybody has their life experiences that make them prefer one thing over another — it makes them prefer blond hair over a brunette; if you see somebody with dark skin walking down the street, you have a different reaction than you have [with] someone who is 5-foot-1 and white. But there is a connotation with racism of superiority: You feel that your race generally is superior. And I have to say, I live with constant prejudice, but racism is actually rare — someone who thinks their race is superior. I don’t want to work for them. I don’t want to work at that company. And the times I have come in contact with it, you get away from those people.
