Hollywood stars – they’re just like us! Except that when we want to go on a massive jolly/rehabilitative journey for ourselves and/or our careers, we have to pay for it. And we generally cannot go on a 100-day adventure across seven continents, with experts on hand to introduce us to their indigenous inhabitants, talk us through world-changing research being done in the most isolated regions on Earth, show us new and fascinating species that can be found there that may hold the cure to all known diseases, and guide us through the breathtaking landscapes that make you want to throw yourself to the ground and weep at the beauty laid out before humanity’s largely uncaring eyes.
Not so for Willard Carroll Smith II, the Academy award, Bafta and Grammy-winning actor and rapper who enjoyed an uninterruptedly stellar career from the late 80s until 2022, when he put a crimp in things by lamping the Oscars’ host Chris Rock for insulting Smith’s wife. This was followed by a tour violinist suing him for alleged predatory behaviour, unlawful termination and retaliation, which is working its way through the California legal system now. Smith has categorically denied all allegations. He is getting away from it all in the meantime by doing all the adventuring noted above – a septet of episodes of Pole to Pole With Will Smith (the name by which of course he is known to us) in honour of his late mentor Dr Allen Counter. Counter was a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, the inaugural director of the university’s Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations and – in his spare time, I guess? – a noted explorer. I cannot help but feel a biopic must be in the works, and I hope it comes soon.
Has all the sweeping grandeur you would expect … Will Smith takes part in a ceremony that signifies an old reef area that is closed until the fish return. Photograph: Freddie Claire/National Geographic
But back to Smith and his seven continents. The series is made by National Geographic and has all the visual polish and sweeping grandeur you would expect. It doesn’t rest on its star presenter laurels. Every moment looks gorgeous or is thrilling. The parts where Smith talks to camera are less enthralling – why does nobody ever provide a script for these things that at least attempts to match the standards reached elsewhere? – but out in the field, he’s a great companion: charismatic, funny (“They might be a little crazy,” he points out after the news that he is to visit three Brazilian climate scientists who have spent months alone in a tiny research station in west Antarctica. “And we need to be prepared for that. What’s our evacuation plan if they start tripping?”), honest in his awestruck reactions and apparently genuinely fascinated by his (genuinely fascinating) companions.
‘There is not a hospital as far as I can see’ … Will Smith prepares to scale a massive, spindly tree. Photograph: Kyle Christy/National Geographic
In the three episodes available for review, they include the former Welsh rugby star and (current) polar athlete Richard Parks (who has to rein Smith in when he starts dancing on the ice sheet they are skiing across on their way to the south pole – “The environment doesn’t support life … there’s very little margin for error”), Heitor Evangelista (one of the Brazilian scientists, not “crazy”, but very clear that this is not the life for everyone) and the toxicologist Prof Bryan Fry. Fry takes Smith 60 metres (200ft) up a spindly looking tree in the Amazon rainforest to show him the spectacular view (“There is not a hospital as far as I can see,” says Smith) and then 60 metres below ground, on an expedition led by the Ecuadorian climber Carla Pérez, into caves populated by what are likely to be many new species, hidden from prying eyes and subject to unique evolutionary influences, and hoped to be the sources of new drugs and treatments for the many things that still ail us. “Give me a second,” says bug- and spider-hating Smith, as nameless little beasties skitter across the floor and up the walls, “to get my movie star face back.” In the next episode, Fry and Pérez take him anaconda-hunting. Smith hates snakes too. Attaboy.
There are, inevitably, a few soul-bearing scenes but these are less godawful than they might be. Fry explains that he is motivated in part by survivor’s guilt after he emerged from a bout of meningitis “as lightly touched as you can be” (though he did have to relearn to walk because of muscle wastage, and was left permanently deaf in one ear) and Parks talks briefly and movingly about thinking “the worst thoughts” during the deepest depression he experienced after his rugby career was ended by sudden injury, and how discovering the desolate beauty of the polar regions helped him begin to recover. And Smith is an unexpectedly warm, attentive listener. It’s a lovely mix, and makes Pole to Pole a celebrity documentary that is an honourable exception to the usual dross that passes commissioning muster.
Pole to Pole With Will Smith is on Disney+