ESPN commentator and sports journalist Stephen A. Smith appeared on the Tuesday, May 23 episode of “Tamron Hall” for a sitdown chat with host Tamron Hall on the set of “General Hospital” where they discussed his recurring role as tech expert Brick on the daytime drama series, his family, career and future plans. The pair also had fun chatting about their upcoming appearance in a future episode of “Celebrity Family Feud” where they go head-to-head as opponents.
When asked about his role on “General Hospital,” Smith told Hall, “I’ve been blessed and fortunate because I do scenes primarily with the star of the show. And we’ve developed an incredible friendship, Maurice Benard [Sonny Corinthos] and myself.” He added, “I can’t tell you the amount of times that he’s pulled me to the side and he sat down with me and he’s embraced it and he’s like, ‘Here’s where I want you to go.’ I remember there was a scene where he had lost a relative and literally he said to me, ‘I don’t want to offend you here,’ and he brought up losing my mother in 2017, and he said, ‘I need you to go back to that moment. I need you to embrace how you were feeling at that moment in time.’ He said, ‘I’m only coming to you because I know you can. I need you to do it.’ And that was exactly what I did.”
Photo by Frank Micelotta/ABC
With Smith making a name for himself on ESPN, he shares that one of the biggest secrets to his success is his ability to work, telling Hall, “No one’s gonna outwork me. I remember I was just with my boss the other day and you know, I was reminded of a time where there was a former executive VP at ESPN, who’s now the athletic director at Syracuse, his name is John Wildhack, and he introduced me to the football team because he wanted me to speak to the football team. And he reminded them that he had been in our business for nearly 40 years and I was the only employee he ever had to make take vacation.” Surprised by that comment, Hall asked, “Are you still that guy now?” to which Smith said, “I wouldn’t go that far. You don’t have to make me take vacation. I’m gonna take vacation.”
When asked what changed, Smith replied, “Longevity. Thinking about smelling the roses, I’m not one to sit around and smell it, but I want to do things and associate myself with things that allows me to know that I’m reaping the fruits of my labor…Regardless of the vacations that I take or the time that I take off, I’m still going to outwork 99% of the people out there. I don’t stop. I’m a machine and I know it and I’m proud of it. And I don’t believe that talent is what got me here. It’s a commitment to working hard and exhausting myself trying to be and striving to be the best that I can be. And more importantly than that, it really comes down to, you know, being brilliant because you know you’re not.”
As for what’s next for him in his career, Smith notes, “First order of business is perfecting the things that I’ve already started. My production company I want to grow. Everybody talks about stuff like, you know, Spike Lee and people like that, yeah Spike Lee, Tyler Perry, Jerry Bruckheimer. My aspiration is to get to that point. I’m going to pursue acting, I finally made the decision to do that. That’s something that I want to do because I like portraying other characters and finding myself marrying that character, the challenge of it because I think it makes me better on television. And I’m not satisfied with what I’ve accomplished on television. In the world of sports? Yes. But I plan on taking it a step further.”
Explaining how far he’s willing to go, Smith says, “I want to end my career being recognized as arguably the greatest television talent in history. That’s what I want to do. That’s what I want to accomplish. You can’t do it sitting idly by or sitting around thinking that’s just laudables that are going to be thrown in a direction. You got to put in the work, and I intend to do just that.”
For more on what Smith had today on “Tamron Hall,” watch the clips below.
