Star: Girls didn't like me
2005-02-19 10:52
Berlin - Hollywood star Will Smith told a raucous press conference at the Berlin film festival on Friday that he was well into his 20s before he had any success with women, before planting a kiss on a reporter.
"Women have never liked me. Until I ran with my shirt open in Bad Boys, I was not anybody's first choice. I was skinny, my ears kinda stick out a little bit," Smith said after a screening of his new romantic comedy "Hitch".
"But I could make women laugh. That was all I had. I could make women laugh and then when women started laughing then it would open up and then we could talk and they could find out that they liked the real me."
When a blonde journalist asked his co-star Eva Mendes whether he was a good kisser, Smith leapt over the security cordon and swept the blushing reporter off her feet.
Mendes assured the rest of the audience that Smith was, romantically, the best leading man she had ever worked with.
"I've had some great leading men. But I really have to say that Will is so sensual and such a great kisser, he's by far my favourite on-screen kiss ever," she said.
"He's very respectful too, because I get so nervous about those kind of scenes. He's very sweet and respectful and he's a damn good kisser," she said, before giving Smith a peck on the lips.
Smith, who in Hitch plays a "date doctor" helping unlucky lovers, said he had been awkward in high school and even publicly humiliated by a crush on one occasion.
"I was 24 when I was getting girls. When I was 17 or 18 it was hell," he said.
He said the secret to his successful marriage to actress Jada Pinkett Smith was that they were "just blatantly honest" with each other and that he tried to commit as much time to her as to his career.
"And I'm just a magnificent lover," he added.
Hitch set a new record opening for a romantic comedy at the United States box office on its opening weekend this month, reaping $43.1m.
It is appearing out of competition at the Berlinale, where the top prizes will be presented Saturday night at a gala ceremony. - AFP
- SAPA