Will Smith Explains Why He Ended Up Turning Down THE MATRIX
Before Keanu Reeves was cast in the role of Neo in The Matrix, The Wachowskis approached Will Smith for the role. After a string of big blockbuster hits like Bad Boys, Men in Black, and Independence Day, the filmmakers wanted to be in the Will Smith business and they thought he would be perfect for The Matrix.
Well, apparently Smith couldn’t really see the vision of the film that they wanted to make so he ended up turning them down. In a recent video, the actor explains what his pitch meeting with the Wachowskis was like and how it ultimately led to him turning down the project:
"After we made Men in Black, the Wachowskis, they came in, and they had only done one movie, I think it was called 'Bound,' and they made a pitch for The Matrix. As it turns out, they're geniuses, but there's a fine line in a pitch meeting between a genius and what I experienced in the meeting."
"This is the actual pitch that they made for The Matrix. 'Dude, we're thinking like, imagine you're in a fight, then you jump, imagine if you could stop jumping in the middle of the jump.'"
“Say that again?" Smith said to them, and the Wachowskis continued, "'But then, people could see around you, 360, while you're jumping, while you stopped jumping, right? And we're gonna invent these cameras and then people can see the whole jump while you're stopped in the middle of the jump.'"
I can only imagine that this sounded so freakin’ weird to Smith, so of course I can see why he wasn’t interested in doing it. He couldn’t see really the vision. I can’t help but think that he kicked himself in the ass for not doing it after the movie was released, though. He went on to say:
"Keanu was perfect. Laurence Fishburne was perfect. If I had done it, because I'm black, then Morpheus wouldn't have been black. They were looking at Val Kilmer. I was gonna be Neo and Val Kilmer was gonna be Morpheus, so I probably would have messed The Matrix up. I would have ruined it. So I did y'all a favor."
Val Kilmer as Morpheus!? Now that would have been interesting to see! I can’t help but wonder what The Matrix would have been like with Smith and Kilmer starring in the movie, but in the end the movie turned out to be incredible.
The actor also recalled how he almost turned down Men in Black as well and how the only reason he took the job is because Steven Spielberg talked him into it:
"That was a crazy time in my life. It was like, however I threw the ball, it was going in. I had done Independence Day the year before. I was like, 'I'm not doing another alien movie, I don't wanna be the alien movie guy,' so I turned down Men in Black. And Steven Spielberg called me, he was producing, he said, 'Why are you turning down that movie?' I said, 'I just don't wanna be the alien guy,' he said, 'Um, do me a favor, don't use your brain for this one, use my brain.' He was so serious that I was like, 'Alright, he did do Jaws.' You just get in that universal energy and nothing can go wrong and that other side comes and you can't do nothing right."
It’s a good thing he had the sense to listen to Steven Spielberg!