Source: The Daily Mail
Wednesday 10 November 2021 12:28:31
Will Smith's new YouTube series Best Shape of My Life is full of laughable, uplifting, and vulnerable moments.
But perhaps the most remarkable piece of Monday's two premiere episodes was his climb to the top of the highest building in the world, Dubai's Burj Khalifa.
The structure stands at 2,722ft and is 160 floors. In episode two, My Secret Shame, the 53-year-old made it his mission to reach the peak after a disappointing start to his weight loss and book-writing journey.
The episode kicked off with the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air alum reading a chapter of his forthcoming autobiography in which he recalls his childhood with his militant father Willard Carroll Smith, Sr.
'My father was my hero,' he began when describing his parent. 'He demanded rigid perfection from himself and the people around him.'
Will revealed in the written work, 'I grew up with the double-edged gift of discipline.'
He relayed an anecdote about the time he was 11-years-old and his father enlisted him and his brother to construct a new wall at the front of his shop.
'He thought it would be a good project for my brother Harry and me,' Will explained. 'There were so many times I remember looking at that hole totally discouraged.'
But his dad, who he called Daddy-O, kept him on his brother on a path forward, telling them: 'Stop thinking about the damn wall. Your job is to lay this brick perfectly then move on to the next brick.'
After nearly a year the brothers were proud to have completed the challenging task, and they learned perseverance.
Now, as the ambitions the comedian set for himself as a middle-aged adult seemed daunting, he thought back to the lesson he learned as a child.
Following two weeks of working with a trainer and very slowly dropping pounds, Will professed, 'I've never looked this bad. I'ma fix it though.'
The performer's remedy was to fly to Dubai, twelve hours away from his home in Los Angeles.
'Dubai fits my personality. It just speaks to how I see the world, how I see life,' he noted. 'If you're gonna build a building, are you really not gonna try to build the Burj Khalifa?'
And he laid out his line of thinking: 'I wanna get my body and my mind in the best shape they can be so I can feel good and look good, and be in a headspace that allows me to get this book done.'
The star, who's married to Red Table Talk host Jada Pinkett-Smith, walked up the over one hundred floors as his cardio workout on the day he summited the erection.
In the footage Will got sweaty and tired as he forged ahead. When he finally got to the 160th floor, he realized there was more he could accomplish.
Although he'd gotten to the highest indoor level, he learned he could go even higher, to the very tip of the building.
Strapped into a harness and a helmet, the I Am Legend actor climbed a ladder to enter the spire, the 'individual highest point that a human being can be in a man-made structure on Earth.'
Drone footage showed the Hollywood hunk emerging triumphantly from the building's cap. When he was fully out of the edifice he stretched out both his arms and took in the view with a big smile on his face.