Will Smith thinks his career is "charmed".

Will Smith

Will Smith

The 48-year-old actor - who stars alongside Naomie Harris in the new drama movie 'Collateral Beauty' - admits he has been fortunate through the course of his professional life, but insisted he has endured his fair share of heartache away from the cameras, too.

Will reflected: "My career has been charmed. But my life hasn't been any less difficult than anybody else's. I have had some pretty difficult losses and deaths of different sorts in my life."

Will confessed that he found his divorce from his first wife Sheree Zampino in 1995 particularly difficult to stomach, while his father Willard passed away earlier this year.

However, Will has always taken solace in thinking that all emotions, regardless of whether they are positive or negative, are "impermanent".

He told the Daily Telegraph newspaper: "My divorce from my first wife was pretty devastating. But I have always been able to gravitate towards the light. My grandmother used to say that I had the happy gene.

"A thing that I come back to over and over again that has always been helpful for me is that it's impermanent: that no matter how great something is, it's going to end, and you hate that. But no matter how bad something is, it's going to end too. So that's always been helpful to me."

And Will - who is among the most sought-after stars in Hollywood - thinks his personal troubles have helped him to become a better actor.

He said: "Your life experiences are your tools.

"It's difficult to act something you don't understand. So, as I am getting older and as I'm having more life experiences, I am able to hone my craft and to be able to deliver more authentic experiences on camera."