Will Smith Wanted A ‘Harem Of Girlfriends,’ Including Halle Berry, Before Realizing That Was A ‘Horrific’ Idea

Will Smith is a great interview, but he rarely agrees to a full-blown profile. So it’s a big deal that GQ‘s Wesley Lowery sat down with the Oscar-nominated actor and genie for a lengthy cover story. Topics covered include Smith’s youthful desire to be the biggest movie star in the world (“I wanted to do what Eddie Murphy was doing. I wanted to make people feel how I felt the first time I saw Star Wars“) and why he avoided making movies about slavery until Apple TV+’s Emancipation (“I didn’t want to show Black people in that light. I wanted to be a superhero. So I wanted to depict Black excellence alongside my white counterparts. I wanted to play roles that you would give to Tom Cruise”).

Smith also discussed his previous desire for a harem of girlfriends:

During his first meeting with Michaela Boehm, an intimacy coach he spent years working with, Smith confessed that, if he could have anything in the world, he’d want a harem of girlfriends. “Who” Boehm demanded, insisting he name specific women he’d want to invite to his harem. Misty Copeland, Smith replied. And Halle Berry too. For the rest of the session, the two of them researched specific women who could round out his aspirational harem. The plan was to then begin contacting the women.

Smith thought it was a “really great idea” to travel “with 20 women that I loved and took care of and all of that,” but after talking out his fantasy with Boehm, he realized something. “I was like, ‘That would be horrific. That would be horrific.’ I was like, ‘Can you imagine how miserable’ What she was doing was essentially cleaning out my mind, letting it know it was okay to be me and be who I was,” he explained.

Smith’s Christian upbringing taught him that as a married man, it was wrong to think that “Halle is fine” even though she’s literally Halle Berry. “That was really the process that Michaela worked me through to let me realize that my thoughts were not sins and even acting on an impure thought didn’t make me a piece of sh*t,” he added.

You can (and should) read the entire profile here.