Will Smith’s dad ’embarrassed’ he outlived cancer prognosis

Will Smith’s dad joked he was "embarrassed" that he outlived his cancer prognosis.

The 48-year-old actor’s father, William Carroll, was given just six weeks to live when he was diagnosed with cancer and shocked his family, and himself, by staying alive for more than twice as long as doctors had predicted.

Will recalled: "He was given six weeks and he lived for four months. So you know, I went to see him, about three months in, and he was like, ‘Man, this is embarrassing.’ And I said, ‘What?’ and he said, ‘You tell people you’re going to be dead in six weeks and three months later you’re still hanging around."

Will was filming ‘Collateral Beauty’ when he was given the tragic news that his dad wouldn’t be around for much longer, but admitted it helped him relate to his on-screen character Howard Inlet, who loses his daughter in the emotional drama.

Speaking on ‘Lorraine’, Will said: "In reading the screenplay, when I first got that this guy suffers a loss, and he writes three letters, one to love, one to time and one to death, and in his deteriorating mental state, he mails the letters, and then love time and death respond. I thought that was a beautiful concept for a film, so I was in at that point.

"And you know, the character dealing with the loss of his daughter as I was dealing with the impending loss of my father … it was fun to really dive into all of those ideas and the contrast of finding what was funny in every scene and then dealing with the heavier tragic elements."