Celebrity tales of horror from their not-so-glamorous past are always baffling, but that’s not to say they’re unheard of. In fact, some of the most reputable A-listers in the industry have been seen unimaginably cruel days before propelling into fame, a precursor of success, if you will.

Take Will Smith, for instance – his Oscar fiasco aside, the man classifies as one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars today, and yet, there was a time in his life when he was barely meeting ends, living paycheck to paycheck and drowning in debt. So much so that he had to borrow cash from a local drug dealer to assuage the situation. Oof.

Back When Will Smith Was Knee-Deep in Debt to the IRS

Will Smith might have a whopping net worth of $350 million today, but he hasn’t always basked in such wealth, least of all during the early days of his career.

Before he became an Academy Award-winning actor, Smith, 54, had started off as a rapper, amassing tepid fame but becoming popular enough to earn somewhat of a name for himself. But the Emancipation star soon found himself on the precipice of bankruptcy with unpaid taxes, no money, and the IRS on his trail.
Will Smith during his rapper days
Debt towered over him like a Jenga skyscraper and there appeared no discernible way out of the mess, so Smith did the next best thing he could think of, he decided to wipe his slate clean by leaving his squalid past behind and moving to the West Coast. That, however, required him to take a loan of ten grand from a drug dealer friend of his-
“I knew whatever my new life was going to be, I could feel it was going to be in Los Angeles. So I borrowed $10,000 from a friend of mine who was a purveyor of neighborhood pharmaceuticals.”

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, His Knight in Shining Armor

Though the Men in Black star struggled with finances and taxes, his plights soon bid him farewell after he set foot in L.A., much like what he’d envisioned. And Smith’s guardian angel came in the form of an NBC sitcom, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, the ’90s cult classic that became his big break in the industry.

During an episode of Facebook Watch’s Red Table Talk with Dr. Ramani Durvasula, Smith recounted the same, expressing deep gratitude toward the television series for practically saving his life –
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990-96)
“At that point in my career, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air really saved my life. I had a few years in the music business, but I had lost all of my money, I didn’t pay taxes, I was in debt to the IRS, I had just flopped an album, you know, and The Fresh Prince represented life.”
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air can be streamed on Netflix.