It’s been almost a decade since Will Smith staked his claim on this era, declaring it the “Willenium.” In that time, Smith has risen from the Fresh Prince of the July 4 box-office to the only bankable star in a Hollywood trying to figure out what movie goers want to see.
Will Smith’s winning smile and effortless charm were on display when he visited St. Louis on Wednesday to attend a red carpet premiere of his latest film. “Seven Pounds” is a reteaming with the creative team behind his Oscar-nominated performance in “The Pursuit of Happyness.”

He seems a little nervous about the prospects of his dark, introspective new film, or at least as nervous as someone so self-assured can be. At a roundtable interview on Wednesday, he discussed hanging out with the cast of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” when he plans on putting out another record (sorry “Jiggy” fans, looks like never) and the newly-changed landscape of American politics.

What are you feelings on the election of Barack Obama?

It was something that I preached as true for a long time, even quipped about, “I could absolutely be the President of the United States if I wanted to.” I led my life and carried myself in that way, and it was like some deep rooted part of me, part of a belief system, got validated. I’ve studied the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and it’s like those are some of the finest words ever committed to paper, some of the finest ideas, some of the most well-crafted concepts that have ever been committed to paper about the way human beings should treat one another.

All of that got validated as truth, you know, it’s: “America is not a racist nation.” We have a horrible history, but America is not a racist nation. There are racist people who live here, but as a whole, America is one of the finest nations that has ever existed in the history of the planet. And I’ve always believed that, and there was visible validation of something that was deep and spiritual and powerful inside of me.

Speaking of Barack, do you guys talk, do your kids hangout? Have you been offered a cabinet position yet?

I wanna be the ambassador to Brazil, or something. Not yet, the kids haven’t…

No playdates?

Nope, no playdates yet. It’s pretty much been all work, I met him on the campaign trail, so there really hasn’t been a “hey, what’s going on” meeting, there’s been none of that. It’s been all work, and probably will be for the next eight years. We’ll probably get to sit down in 2016, sometime, to have our cabinet discussion.

You claimed this millennium as yours—

—right, the Willenium.

Right, has anyone else tried to stake their claim on the millennium, and have you had to fight back for it?

Well, no one has tried to stake their claim—it was 2000 when I called this the new Willenium, so I’m actually kind of counting on Barack as a part of the new Willenium. I’m counting on that as a part of something that I prophesized.

Are you and Gabriele Muccino, director of “Seven Pounds” and “Pursuit of Happyness,” going to work together again?

Oh, yeah, he’s a fantastic director, we have a very similar sense of character. And he has a very unique ability: He makes male chick flicks.

We had an NFL screening for “Pursuit of Happyness,” so it was like the minimum weight in the room was like 310. And I’m watching all of these big guys, and Michael Irving was there, who is a tight-end for the Cowboys, he’s about 6 feet 5 inches or something like that, he’s sitting there with his wife. And the part in “Pursuit” comes to where I put my foot on the door, and he turns to his wife and says “Woman, you sitting over there crying?” And she says, “No, Michael, that’s you.”

So Gabriele has this really unique ability to make really masculine, male stories; you can really relate to the strength of the characters and all that, but it’s just tearing guys up, sitting there watching those movies, I think “Seven Pounds” has that same thing.

Does playing someone as dark as Ben Thomas of “Seven Pounds” affect you?

This one really messed me up so bad. “Six Degrees of Separation” [one of Smith’s earliest films] was the only other movie that twisted me up in that way. As an actor, what you try to do is try to reprogram your instincts, so you have an instinctual, not an acting, reaction. So you train it and train it and train it, and do it and do it and do it, until it starts happening without you knowing. But there’s also the de-training. So what happens is, you don’t realize—you’re sitting at the dinner table with Jada and the kids, and everybody’s quiet. “Why you all so quiet,” and Jada’s like, “Dude, ’cause you’re being weird.”

How difficult is it to talk about a film like this where so much is dependant on the audience not knowing?

Well that’s where I need you guys. It’s extremely difficult for two reasons. First, it’s difficult because you don’t want to ruin the movie. But secondly, it’s difficult for me, because the mission statement for our company is to create extraordinary entertainment art and deliver to all people in the world. And part of that is the one-line of the movie: “an alcoholic super-hero.” Everybody’s coming to see that movie. “The last man on earth is not alone.” Everybody’s coming to see that movie. So it’s difficult with this one, where we have a fantastic line… if we tell people, you know this a dude that’s giving… I mean, we can come up with that line that’ll make people come to see this movie, so to have to hold that back is excruciating, because it’s like you have a knock-out punch that you’re not gonna throw, but you’re gonna be in the fight. It’s like, the U.S. going into Normandy, sending ground troops, but we got the atomic bomb, but we gonna send the ground troops…but, you don’t need to. So it’s one of those situations.

There was talk of a “Independence Day 2”?

He [Director Roland Emmerich] was trying to do another one, he had an interesting idea, but he didn’t love it enough to send me a script. What’s it been, 20 years? He said something about all the space ships crashed around the world and the aliens had burrowed, and no one knew. And humanity didn’t know, but they had been breeding…but the script never came.

It’s been said you made a bet with your parents during high school, about college—

Oh, it wasn’t a bet, but my father was in the Air Force, and my mother graduated from Carnegie Mellon, so education in America was like really important in our family. So going to college was huge. My first record came out around 30 days before I graduated from high school, which, by the way, is not a good thing. If you have kids, hold their record until after they get out of high school. You do not wanta have a hit record and be a senior. No good comes out of that.

My brother and sister had gone to Hampton University, so my mother went and she did everything, was filling out all of my things, and making me go on all the college tours, but I had no intention of going to college. It came down to the last few months, I had to tell my parents, listen I want to try to be a rapper. My mother thought that was the dumbest crap she had ever heard in her life. My father said, “Listen, take a year, and if you can make it happen, make it happen. If not, next year, you’ll come back and pick one of these brochures that your mother filled out. In that year, we recorded “Parents just don’t understand,” which won the first Grammy ever given to a rap artist… so, my mom’s cool with that. Every once in awhile just for fun, “you know you need to go back and get your degree.” I’m okay, mommy, they might sell me one.