Hollywood A-list actor Will Smith has wowed audiences countless times with his superb performance in various movies. In his latest project "Concussion," the actor is set to impress once again for his moving portrayal of Christian Dr. Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian-born forensic pathologist who landed on the news after he discovered that concussions affect the brain.
Smith said his grandmother's influence in his life helped prepare him for the film, and he is thanking her for helping him portray the religious character Omalu.
"My grandmother was really my connection to God," he told The Christian Post. "She was my spiritual teacher, she was that grandmother at the church, the one having the kids doing the Easter presentations and putting on the Christmas plays and her kids and grandkids had to be first. She was the most spiritually certain person that I had ever met in my entire life. Even to the point that when she was dying she was happy, like she was really excited about going to heaven."
One of the biggest challenges faced by Smith in doing "Concussion" was the understanding of forensic pathology. "With Bennet (Omalu), the scientific part was the new addition because my grandmother wasn't a woman of science, you know, she was a woman of spirituality, of the Bible. For Bennet to connect that part of it was the new addition that was interesting and a little more difficult to reconcile for me. But the spirituality was deeply and easily comprehensible."
When Omalu saw the movie for the first time, he was so moved by Smith's portrayal that he wept. He gushed that Smith's performance was "phenomenal," and he has nothing but praises for the actor.
"He spent time with me and he was very observant. And, in fact, he (Smith) had said what made him accept the role was meeting me," Omalu said. "The spiritual stuff is deep. We met, we shared and we communed the love of God, and he also saw the light. The spirit of God also touched him."
