'After Earth' failure was the most painful: Will Smith

Actor Will Smith says the debacle of sci-fi film "After Earth" was the "most painful failure" of his career.

Smith starred alongside his son Jaden in the 2013 film, which bombed at the box-office.

The 46-year-old shared his views over the film's failure while talking to Esquire magazine, reports hollywoodreporter.com.

"That was the most painful failure in my career. 'Wild Wild West' was less painful than 'After Earth', because my son was involved in 'After Earth' and I led him into it. That was excruciating," Smith said.

"What I learned from that failure is how you win. I got reinvigorated after the failure of 'After Earth'. I stopped working for a year and a half. I had to dive into why it was so important for me to have number-one movies. And I never would have looked at myself in that way," he added.