Will Smith Says He Would Yell at His Younger Self for Not Playing Neo in THE MATRIX
In Will Smith’s upcoming film Gemini Man, his character comes face to face with a clone of his younger self. While they are fighting, old Smith is also trying to help the younger clone of himself to steer him on the right path.
Well, on the red carpet of the premiere of the film, Smith was asked what professional advice he wishes he could have given his younger self. He explained that he would yell at his younger self for not taking the role of Neo in The Matrix:
“Go back to Wild, Wild West and I would say ‘Asshole, why didn’t you do The Matrix?”
That’s pretty funny. That’s obviously a career decision he regrets making. You can watch him make this comment in the video below:
I just asked Will Smith what piece of professional advice he wishes he could give a younger him — his answer:
— Jake Hamilton (@JakesTakes) October 7, 2019
“Go back to ‘WILD WILD WEST’ and I would say ‘Asshole, why didn’t you do THE MATRIX’?” pic.twitter.com/PkE1R9ljUY
Smith previously explained why he turned down The Matrix, saying, "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."
He went on to explain how the meeting went down explaining, "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.'"
That would’ve certainly sounded like a weird pitch, but after Smith saw the film and how it actually played out, you know he had immediate regret. But, everything ended up working out, and The Matrix turned out awesome!