Will Smith moonwalked at Ali funeral
Will Smith moonwalked at Muhammad Ali’s funeral.
The ‘Suicide Squad’ actor was one of the pallbearers at the legendary fighter’s memorial service earlier this month alongside former boxers Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis and the late sporting icon’s son, Muhammad Ali Jr., says he and his family wouldn’t have got through the sad occasion if it weren’t for the trio’s efforts to lighten the mood.
He told The Sun on Sunday newspaper: "Oh my God, without those three I can’t imagine how bad I would have been.
"Will Smith doing the Michael Jackson moonwalk, Mike Tyson cracking jokes and Lennox Lewis doing imitations of my father – he sounded just like him.
"They made me laugh, they helped us all. It broke the ice. It meant so much. Everyone showed such love."
Will previously admitted being a part of the funeral service for Ali – who died of septic shock on June 3 aged 74 after a long battle with Parkinson’s Disease – was "humbling" but he had enjoyed swapping stories about the sporting legend with Mike and Lennox.
He said: "We all sat around, you know – Tyson, Lewis, and a lot of Ali’s family and me – for about an hour.
"We all just told the stories and our memories. You know, for me, it’s just humbling to be able to be here with the family in this time of need. He lived the perfect example of how a human being is supposed to live their life. It was beautiful."
The 47-year-old actor was stunned by the "outpouring of love" during the funeral procession and learned a "valuable lesson" while driving through the streets of Louisville and seeing how much people adored the sportsman.
He said: "It’s absolutely beautiful. We did a two-hour procession through the state … the outpouring of love.
"I learned a really valuable lesson about how the moment of the end of a life illuminates how it was lived. And every day you have to focus and concentrate on making sure you’re living your life in a way that it illuminates the things you want illuminated, and the things that were illuminated were his love, and his heart, and his unconditional appreciation for all people of every race and color."
