How Will Smith conquered his fear

He may be among the most bankable stars in Hollywood but Will Smith wasn’t always super-confident…

In fact, he once had a crippling fear of open spaces full of people. But Will found a novel way to come to grips with it.

Will says when he was in seventh grade, he would walk into the food court in his local shopping centre and say: 'Could I have everybody's attention please! My name is Will Smith. You don't know me right now but one day you're gonna know me. Thank you!'

Will says it was such a little thing but that’s how he trained himself to confront his fears.

"That was such a little thing, but that feeling that you get... you'll never have anything that's more terrifying than that... (You should) train yourself to confront those things and it's something you got to do every day. Then when a real-life situation comes up you're used to confronting that terrified part of yourself."