Los Angeles, Dec 6 (IANS): Actor Will Smith believes filming "Collateral Beauty", in which he plays a man who has suffered a personal tragedy, helped him deal with his own father's death.

The 48-year-old actor was left devastated when his father Willard Carroll Smith Sr. died in November but said that starring in the drama film has made it easier to cope with his personal loss.

"This has been one of the greatest confluences of life and art that I've ever experienced. Some of the issues that the character is dealing with are so profoundly perfectly timed for what I was experiencing in my life. It was just a fantastic opportunity to grow as an actor while I was growing as a man," Smith told people.com.

"I think more than ever I see - and intellectually I've accepted (but) it's still difficult emotionally - I understand that suffering is how we grow. Even in my life with Jada, like I'm a hopeless romantic, but romance is not love. That's not what love is. That fluffy, fancy, pretty stuff is actually anti-love. It keeps you away from love. Love is really born of surviving with somebody," he added.

In the movie, Will plays an advertising executive who hides away after a personal tragedy. However, his friends and colleagues hope to help him out of the rut with a drastic plan to encourage him to face up to the tragedy.

When Willard passed away, Will's former wife Sheree Fletcher took to social media to write a personal message in memory of her former father-in-law.

Captioning a photograph of Will, his father and her son Trey, who she has with Will, she wrote on Instagram: "We're gonna miss you Daddio! You lived & played by your own rules...you truly were one of a kind! You instilled discipline, and a work ethic that has created a legacy in your honor!"