Inside the Profanity-Packed Denzel Washington Pep Talk That Pushed Will Smith Into Dangerous Challenges

Will Smith is back on your TV, but not as a cop or an alien wrangler. He’s now the guy hanging off glaciers and crawling around with spiders for Pole to Pole with Will Smith, a 2026 travel docuseries streaming on Disney+. And if you’re wondering why the Oscar winner thought, yeah, let me go scuba under Arctic ice, he says we can all thank (or blame) another Oscar winner: Denzel Washington.

How Denzel pushed Will into his 'do the scary thing' era

On The Tonight Show, Smith explained that this whole adventure streak traces back to a conversation at Denzel’s house about 15 years ago. Pauletta Washington and Jada Pinkett Smith wandered off to chat, Denzel had just come home from a long day, and, as Will tells it, Pauletta basically made him sit and talk. What followed stuck:

"Everybody’s 40s are funky. I call it the funky 40s. You built this life up for yourself and everything, and some parts of it don’t work for you anymore. But then you get to the F-it 50s. You get to your 50s, and you just say F-it. You just say F-it."

"You decide you’re just gonna be yourself, and you’re gonna do what you wanna do and take what the world gives you."

Translation: some stuff that made sense in your 30s and 40s stops fitting. Once you hit your 50s, you strip it down and do what actually feeds you. Will took that to heart. He said he realized the money and the career boxes were checked, but fulfillment would only come if he started walking straight at his deepest fears. Hence: this show.

So what does he actually do on Pole to Pole?

Quick reminder: Smith has made a career out of action-heavy hits like the Bad Boys movies, Independence Day, Men in Black, and Suicide Squad. But by his own admission, he’s not a real-life daredevil (something he rediscovered during Bad Boys for Life). That’s why the stuff he attempts here lands harder:

• Scuba dives beneath the Arctic ice and has a near-death moment he can now laugh about
• Milks tarantulas (yes, that’s a thing, and no, I don’t want to talk about it)
• Climbs ice-covered mountains in blizzard conditions

It’s a globe-trotting endurance test disguised as a travel doc, and Smith’s fully leaning into it.

Why he says Denzel is 'to blame'

Smith joked that this is all Washington’s fault because that 'F-it 50s' mindset is exactly what pushed him over the edge into a series full of risky, uncomfortable, very-not-Hollywood-controlled situations. And he’s not just collecting passport stamps. He says these physical gauntlets are his way of doing the inside work, not just the highlight-reel stuff. This tracks with the same mentor energy he’s shown when offering advice to up-and-comers like Tyrese Gibson.

Where to watch and final thought

Pole to Pole with Will Smith is streaming on Disney+, if you’re ready to watch the Fresh Prince become the Frozen Prince.

I respect Will’s 'F-it 50s' mission. Personally, mine will be on dry, flat, tarantula-free land for as long as humanly possible.