Stockard Channing Says 'Chemistry' with Costar Will Smith onSix Degrees of SeparationWas 'Very Motherly'

Mar. 15, 2025

Photo:Jason Kempin/WireImage; James Manning/PA Images via Getty

Jason Kempin/WireImage; James Manning/PA Images via Getty

Stockard Channingis fondly remembering her time withWill Smithas a costar.

The 80-year-old star recalled onThe Hollywood Reporter’sIt Happened in Hollywoodpodcastthat she shared immediate “chemistry” with Smith, now 55, when filming 1993’sSix Degrees of Separation.

“I felt very motherly towards him,” said Channing, who earned an Academy Award nomination for her lead performance as Ouisa Kittredge in the movie. “I liked him a lot. He was absolutely adorable, just a sweetheart… natural and easygoing.”

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She added that there was “genuine charm and a lovely sweetness about” Smith from the moment they met, when he and film director Fred Schepisi took Channing to dinner after watching her in the U.K. stage version ofSix Degrees.

One of his first major film roles after finding success with DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince and long-running sitcomThe Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, theSix Degreesscreen adaptation cast Smith as Paul, a con artist who enmeshes himself in the lives of an Upper East Side couple (Channing andDonald Sutherland).

“He made a lot [of money] from his music, or evenFresh Prince,” Channing toldThe Hollywood Reporter. But “there was no ‘big shot’ stuff at all” when it came to her costar, she said. “I remember we talked about it.”

The “real survival instinct in him,” Channing added, “was completely perfect for the part.”

When asked about Smith’s admission, in his 2021memoirWilland in interviews, that he had fallen in love with Channing while filming, she clarified that “there was nothing [romantic] that was between me and him.”

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TheKing RichardOscar winner wrote in his memoir that at the time, his first marriage withSheree Zampino“was off to a rocky start.” After wrappingSix Degrees, he said, “I found myself desperately yearning to see and speak to Stockard.”

“I got a taste early of the dangers of going too far for a character,” Smith toldEsquirein 2015 of the film. “The movie was over and I went home, and I was dying to see Stockard. I was like, ‘Oh no! What have I done?’ ”

Channing has recently appeared on episodes ofJuliaandMaryland, and will next star inKnuckles. Smith will next reunite withMartin LawrenceinBad Boys: Ride or Die(in theaters June 7).

source: people.com