Are you going to play him in a bio-pic?

Will: Am I going to play him?  You know, I would love to.  He just wrote a fantastic end to the first movie at least, so I’ll be looking to do it when he’s out of office in 8 years.

The aspect of the film with the connection of love…can you talk about how the two of you fall in love on screen is very believable?

Will: There’s an idea that was one of the central concepts that I fell in love with in this movie. We talked about trauma and there’s an idea that in the west we think about things in straight lines, okay?  There’s birth, there’s life, and then there’s death.  And at death there’s a cliff and it’s the you know the end of the world and everything’s over.  And that’s not really how things work and if you take the ends of that line and bend it into a circle, there’s birth, life, death and then re-birth.  Re-birth is inevitable.  There’s nothing that can happen.  There’s no literal or figurative death.  You lose your job, you get divorced, anything like that.  When it’s winter, everything dies.  The spring is always coming.  That’s just the way that it works, right?  And this is a character who didn’t realize that.  He didn’t realize that the spring and the metaphor of the spring being new love, right?  He didn’t know that he could fall in love again.  He didn’t know that what got broken could be repaired.  And I loved that transformative power of love and that idea that you can’t destroy the crops just because it’s winter, right?  You’ve got to stay prepared. Yes, your partner died or you lost your job, you lost your house-you know- you didn’t graduate when you were supposed to graduate but relax, relax.  Please just pay attention. Stay focused because the spring is coming but you’ve got to be there and be prepared to catch the wave of new life and this movie is almost a cautionary tale because Ben Thomas realized it too late.  He didn’t know and he set this thing in motion.  He did this.  He was trying to fix it and he set this thing in motion and he missed the natural tide, you know?  I don’t know.  I could do that for hours but I just love that concept.

Have you ever had one of those moments, you know, those winters when you didn’t think or know that spring would come or were you always a positive person?

Will: For me it was probably my divorce was one of the most emotionally devastating things I’ve ever experienced just for a lot of reasons.  I had a 2-year old and the whole idea of failure.  I just can’t…that idea that I was too weak to make something work was just devastating for me.  The idea that somebody could not love me anymore and all of those things were going through my head and I really just gave up and I think that was the most devastating part.  It’s like I don’t mind if Mike Tyson knocks me clean the hell out and I get hit when I’m swinging, but you can’t be cowering in the corner and get knocked out, you know?  I just hated that feeling.

Did you take this character home with you because he’s so different than your own personality? 

Will: Yeah.

And did Jada comment that you’re too much of a downer for a little while?

Will: No, you know what?  It’s crazy.  When you start to program a character you don’t realize that when it’s sinking in it’s such a slow process, you know, you’re working on it every day but you don’t realize the adjustment.  I remember one night we’re sitting at dinner and Jayden is Mr. Reality.  He keeps me really informed about what’s going on in the house and he tells me the truth all the time.  So we’re sitting at dinner, you know family dinner is a big thing in our house and it’s really quiet.  So I lean over to Jayden—he’s my man. I say, “Hey Jayden I was like why is it so quiet?”  He said, “Cos you look crazy!”  (laughter) And it was like I had no idea because we had worked on this thing—one of the ideas with the character is that he’s trying to determine if someone’s a good person. So we talked about people all wear masks.  You wear your sensitive lover mask, you know when it’s one of those special nights. You wear your disciplinarian mask when you’re dealing with your kids.  You wear your law abiding citizen mask when you get pulled over by the police. And people have all these masks that they put on, so we developed this thing where my character is trying to look under people’s masks, right?  But it’s a figurative idea but we said that he’s literally trying to look under the mask, right?  So he’s literally trying to see if he can see around and under people’s masks but while he’s keeping his on.  So I developed this really bizarre kind of behavior, you know, and if somebody would turn their eyes away, I would look. And I programmed it so much and I didn’t realize so I’m sitting at the dinner table, you know?  And I’m looking and Jayden’s like… and I hadn’t even noticed that I had gotten to that place.

Has any role ever affected you this much?

Will: No, this is…on “Six Degrees of Separation” I got really messed up for awhile because I wasn’t aware.  I didn’t know that when you reprogram your instincts that way, you really are changing yourself, right?  And I didn’t know that.  And the movie was over and I just needed to talk to Stockard Channing and I was like why do I need to call Stockard?  And I call and say “hey Stockard.  How you doing?” and she’s like “Hey, Will”.  I’m like “Hey” and I’m just like oh my God.  I’m falling in love with Stockard Channing and I didn’t realize that so at least this time I was prepared for the potential of it so it took me about 4 to 6 weeks to really just get back and remember who I was but it can be….it changes everything.  Like for “Ali” it was great because it was like I was in shape and I was strong and it sort of changed things with Jada and I for “Ali”, you know?

Will, did you have to do any physical preparations for this?  I know it’s not like a action movie like “I Am Legend” or you know…?

Will: Well, I lost about 15 pounds.  I just wanted to have that really sort of more sunken in look. 

So you stopped going to the gym or…?

Will: No, you actually have to go to the gym more.  So I actually spent more time in the gym.  I just changed what the work was.  I was doing 2 a day cardio, so you just you know…?

What’s your normal regiment now that you’re not on a movie?

Will: I just eat now.  Oh now, it’s not pretty under here right now.  It’s so not “I Am Legend” right now.  It’s “I Am Luggage” right here.

Speaking of Robert Neville and “I Am Legend”, there’s been a lot of talk about you possibly doing a prequel or a sequel to that film.  Could you tell us what it is and what excites you about going back to that character?

Will: We have a fantastic prequel idea.  We’re still trying to work through a couple of bumps in the story, but it’s the idea….it’s essentially the fall of the last city.  The last stand of Manhattan.  And the movie would be about within the body of the movie D.C. and then Manhattan would fall as the last city, so it’s a really cool idea trying to figure it out and there’s a reason why we have to take a small band and we have to get into D.C.  So we have to make our way from New York to D.C. and then back to New York.

Will the cool dog be back in it?

Will: Yes, the dog will be a puppy.  The dog will be a puppy, yes.

And I have to ask you about the Karate Kid.

Will: Yes, my son yes.  We’re working on for “The Karate Kid”.  We’re doing that with the China Film Group, so we’re looking….it’s difficult in China because they actually approve every word of every script, you know?  I’m sort of offended by that but we’re going to try to work it out.  We’re working it out with the China Film Group.

What are your holiday plans?

Will: Holiday plans.  Jada keeps for probably the 3 months before Christmas she’s always looking at wherever the maximum snowfall is and she hold ‘til the last couple of weeks and then chooses the place based on snowfall.  So it’s Utah or Montana or someplace like that.

During your last interview he said that when something’s brilliant he tells you it’s brilliant and you believe him and when something’s bad he just straight out tells you that was bad?

Will: Yeah, Gabrielle will say, “that was awful.  There’s nothing I could use.  It was so bad I turned my eyes away.  It’s so bad I don’t know what to tell you.  Please just do it again.” Thank you guys.

What’s your move next?

Will: I’m currently unemployed.  I’m developing a lot of things.  I have no idea. 

Do you have any resolutions for the family?

Will: You know, I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions.