Will Smith has revealed he turned down one of the most acclaimed blockbusters of the 21st century because he “didn’t get it”.
The actor has previous experience of turning down films that go on to become huge blockbusters – he was in contention to play Neo in the Wachowski’s 1999 sci-fi thriller The Matrix.
Smith made another bad call in the late 2000s when Christopher Nolan, fresh off his Dark Knight success, approached the actor to play the lead role in the 2010 film Inception.
“I don’t think I’ve ever even said it publicly before,” Smith said during an interview on radio station Kiss Xtra.
“Chris Nolan brought me Inception first, and I didn’t get it. I’ve never said that out loud. Now that I think about it, it’s those movies that go into those alternate realities; they don’t pitch well.”
He said he was “hurt” by missing out on the chance to star in The Matrix and Inception, both of which became massive hits at the box office.
Keanu Reeves ended up playing Neo in the former, while Leonardo DiCaprio ultimately played the role of Cobb in Nolan’s cerebral heist thriller.
Speaking about his decision to snub The Matrix, Smith previously said that he didn’t share the Wachowskis’ vision of what the film could be, and was left baffled by their pitch.
He recalled their description of the now-iconic freeze frame jump: “We’re thinking like… imagine you’re in a fight. You, like, jump. Imagine if you could stop jumping in the middle of the jump.
“But then, people could see around you 360 degrees while you stop jumping. We’re going to invent these cameras and then people can see the whole jump when you stop in the middle of the jump.”
Smith went on to star in Wild Wild West, which went on to be one of the biggest flops of his career. However, the actor has the humility to admit that The Matrix was probably better off without him.
Instead of Inception, Smith starred in Men in Black 3 and critically mauled M Night Shyamalan film After Earth.
