If you talk to tons of movie lovers, most of them will probably tell you the felt “After Earth,” starring Will Smith and his son Jaden, was terrible. The level of hate for the film stems partly from M. Night Shyamalan’s involvement, but a lot of viewers were left wondering what convinced Will Smith to get involved with the project.

Smith told Esquire Magazine that the failure of “After Earth” was one that cut deep. “That was the most painful failure in my career,” he said. “‘Wild Wild West’ was less painful than ‘After Earth’ because my son was involved with ‘After Earth’ and I led him into it. That was excruciating. What I learned from failure is how you win.”

He said that he took off from work for a year and a half to figure out what element of himself led him to have several number one movies. But the sting of movie failure wasn’t anything compared to what he was about to hear next. “‘After Earth’ comes out, I get the box-office numbers on Monday and I was devastated for about twenty-four minutes, then my phone rang and I found out my father had cancer. That put it in perspective–viciously,” he said. He said that through it all, he realized that love was the only thing that would make him feel more complete, not big box-office numbers.

What did you think of “After Earth”? Did you actually like it? Give your opinions in the comments section below.