During an interview with Yahoo, Will Smith discussed the fate of his Independence Day character Steven Hiller. It was recently revealed on a viral website for Independence Day: Resurgence that Hiller was killed in a test flight explosion. The site reads: “While test piloting the ESD’s first alien hybrid fighter, an unknown malfunction causes the untimely death of Col. Hiller. Hiller’s valor in the War of 96 made him a beloved global icon whose selfless assault against the alien mothership lead directly to the enemy’s defeat. He is survived by his wife Jasmine and son Dylan..
Watching football since filming Concussion: “I haven’t seen a whole game. I walk through the airport and I’ll see something, or I’ll see a play on the news. It’s really stressful now. It definitely created a conflict for me. It’s still beautiful, it’s still America’s favorite game. That doesn’t change at all. It just has another side, that once you see and once you know and once you understand, you can’t not see.”
Would he let his son play football knowing what he knows now: “It would be a very, very difficult situation. It’s hard when somebody loves something the way that my son loved playing football. I would have to make sure that he had the information and we would have to sit down as a family and make a decision. I don’t think I’m the type of parent that would pull him and say, ‘Absolutely not, over my dead body.’ I don’t think I’d do that, but I would hope that I could convince him to spend his time elsewhere.”
On finding out the fate of his Independence Day character: “I was working on Suicide Squad during that time. [Independence Day director] Roland [Emmerich] and I had talked about it. The trailer looks really cool. I’m going to be sitting around with tears in my eyes when that one comes out… It was terrible when I found out my character died.”