Will Smith Almost Died During North Pole ‘Terror’: A Practical Look

Will Smith is recalling the near-death experience he had while filming his new National Geographic travel series.

The Oscar-winning actor, 57, revealed the “terror” that came when he went scuba diving at the North Pole while filming the newly-released Pole to Pole With Will Smith during Tuesday’s episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

“We went scuba diving at the North Pole, right? So we did a dive under the ice,” Smith told host Jimmy Fallon. “So you go under the ice, and the ice can be up to 10 feet thick. So we’re under, we went out about 40 yards away… It’s like an upside-down ice mountain range, right?”

“We went under, and I start hearing, ‘Abort dive! Abort dive! Abort!’” he continued. “And I’m like, ‘Oh no,’ right? So I went to ascend and hit ice. I was like, ‘Oh no, Will, calm down. Calm down.’ You have a tether on, and you have to pull yourself back to the hole, right? I grabbed and accidentally pulled my mask off.”

In the moment of panic, Smith was able to put his mask back on, after which he tried his best to calm down. “I was like, ‘If I get out of here, I’m only gonna do Black stuff from here on out,’” he joked. “I promise, Lord! African American behavior from here on out!”

It was while the actor was having that moment that he felt someone grab his tether and start pulling him up. “When I realized I was good, I just relaxed and I looked around and when I tell you, the sun is coming through the ice, and it went from terror to the most spiritual, beautiful thing,” he recalled. “And I was just like, ‘Whoever’s up there, don’t let go of my tether!’”

Smith also found himself adventuring in the Amazon for the new Disney+ show, hunting for an anaconda as part of a conservation initiative.

“We were with the natives, and they didn’t even have no clothes on, their whole name and address was hanging out,” Smith shared. “And so we’re going down the river, and they see the anaconda and jump out of the boat into the water and swim for the anaconda.”

“They had a sense that there was some kind of illegal dumping going on, and the scales of the anaconda, they hold whatever’s in the water,” he continued. “So they would take a scale from the anaconda and test it to be able to use it in court.”

Despite his role in the important effort, Smith joked, “I don’t know why they needed me!”

Pole to Pole With Will Smith is streaming now on Disney+.