Smith takes charge of racially-charged sitcom episode

Will Smith has stepped behind the camera of his sitcom All Of Us to direct an episode in which a young African-American character questions the meaning of the 'N' word.

It's the first time Smith has directed anything, and he admits he felt it was an important subject matter that should be treated delicately.

He explains: "The revisionist perspective on the word is that we have taken the word and we have transformed it and we have turned it into a word, much like the gay community did with the word 'queer'.

"We flipped it and threw it in the face of the oppressor, but there's also those who would prefer that the word go the way of most words… it just dies and goes away.

"The show doesn't follow one side of the other... It's very interesting."