Will Smith wouldn’t seem an obvious candidate for a midlife crisis. Hugely successful, immensely popular, indefatigably sunny.

But Smith, who stars in the upcoming drama “King Richard,” as Richard Williams, father and coach to Venus and Serena Williams, is reemerging after an extensive period of introspection. The 53-year-old, as he writes in a new memoir, has been meditating, participating in ayahuasca ceremonies and generally asking himself a lot of questions — about his own childhood and his choices as a father, husband and movie star.

What prompted Smith’s self-inquiry?

“My family was starting to hate me,” he says, chuckling. “Everything was going so well and everybody was so miserable. I thought, ‘Maybe I should take a look at this.’”

“From a spiritual standpoint, I started bumping up against the ceiling of what material pursuits can deliver. I climbed a whole lot of mountains and started to realize the carrot on the stick of material success,” Smith continues. “I guess I started hoping that there was something else because if hit movies was all there was, I was going to be in a mess.”