--- description: Will Smith took to The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Thursday where he told DeGeneres that there was definitely a lion in his backyard. title: Apparently, Will Smith Has a Lion in His Backyard image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Newsfeed](/tag/time-section-newsfeed/) ## Newsfeed Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # There's a Lion Living In Will Smith's Backyard According to Will Smith  by [Cady Lang](/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 8, 2016 8:09 PM CUT  by [Cady Lang](/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 8, 2016 8:09 PM CUT [Will Smith](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1689234,00.html "undefined") has some pretty wild new neighbors — at least, that’s the story that he told [Ellen Degeneres](http://time.com/4456515/ellen-degeneres-is-not-racist/ "undefined") when he appeared on her eponymous show on Thursday. According to [_Collateral Beauty_](http://www.ew.com/article/2016/11/10/collateral-beauty-trailer-will-smith "undefined")star, there’s a lion in his backyard, although actual footage from his home shows that the lion is really more like a mountain lion or a feral big cat, something that DeGeneres kindly pointed out to him. Smith, however, remained unconvinced, telling Ellen that his solution to the issue of the “lion” was to “immediately put the kids on punishment, you call the ranger, and the ranger comes out and says you have a lion.” He later joked that he hoped animal control would be able to send the lions to his neighbor Denzel Washington’s house. Watch the full clip below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4595537/will-smith-lion/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4595537/will-smith-lion/"},"headline":"There's a Lion Living In Will Smith's Backyard According to Will Smith","datePublished":"2016-12-08T20:09:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:39:19.600Z","description":"Ellen DeGeneres thinks otherwise","url":"https://time.com/4595537/will-smith-lion/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Entertainment","Television","animals","Ellen Degeneres","Humor","Culture","will smith"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4595537/will-smith-lion/","name":"There's a Lion Living In Will Smith's Backyard According to Will Smith"}}]}] ```