Will Smith will step behind the helm to direct a racially-charged episode of American sitcom All Of Us.

The episode will feature an African-American character questioning the use of 'the N word' and will be Smith's first attempt at directing.

The star of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air says that he took on the role because he feels the subject matter should be treated delicately.

He explained: "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."