Stockard Channing calls out Will Smith in ‘Six Degrees’

“Six Degrees of Separation” (1993) with Will Smith and Stockard Channing.

Everett

Will Smith may have fallen in love with Stockard Channing while filming SThe ninth degree of separationbut Channing felt only maternal towards the rising star, who was 23 and a newlywed and first-time father at the time.

Channing – who received an Oscar nomination for his role as a New York socialite who hooks up with a young con artist played by Smith in the film – spoke about working with the rising star in a new episode of the series. Hollywood Reporter‘s It happened in Hollywood Podcast.

“He made a lot (of money) from his music, or even The young prince (From Bel Air), Channing said. “Because I remember we talked about it.” Despite his enormous success in music and television at a young age, “there was absolutely nothing big” about Smith, she said.

“He had a real survival instinct, which was absolutely perfect for this role. (There was) a real charm and a beautiful sweetness about him,” Channing added.

Before taking on the role of Paul — who convinces Channing’s Oissa and her husband, So-and-so (Donald Sutherland), that he is studying at Harvard with their children and is Sidney Poitier’s son — Smith flew to London with the film’s director, Fred Schepisi. To see Channing play Ouisa in the stage version of Six degrees. “We went out to dinner afterward, and that was it,” Channing recalls.

Channing recalls that there was instant “chemistry” between the actors when filming began in New York City in February 1992. “(It was) natural and easy.”

In Smith’s 2021 memoir willthe actor wrote about being newly married to his then-wife Sherri Zampino and a new father to his first son, Trey, as production began.

“While filming, I fell in love with Stockard Channing,” Smith wrote. “After the film finished, Sherri, Trey, and I returned to Los Angeles. Our marriage was off to a rocky start. I found myself desperate to see and talk to Stockard.

For her part, “There was nothing between me and him. I felt motherly towards him. I loved him so much. It was absolutely wonderful. “Just a sweetheart,” Channing said. It happened in Hollywood Host Seth Abramovich.