Alan Tudyk claims he was removed from ‘I, Robot’ press tour for being more popular than Will Smith
Alan Tudyk has claimed he was dropped from the press tour for the 2004 movie I, Robot after proving more popular in test screenings than its lead star, Will Smith.
The actor recently appeared on the Toon’d in with Jim Cummings podcast and said he was testing higher with audiences during the film’s trial runs than Smith. He claimed this is why he was supposedly cut from the promotional materials for the film.
Tudyk had been playing a robot named Sonny through motion capture and voice acting. However, he now says that being cut from the film’s press tour means some people never knew he had a big part in the movie.
He explained: “A lot of people did not know I did Sonny the Robot in I, Robot, and there is a reason,” adding, “They were doing test audiences for the movie, and they score the characters in this kind of test screening. I got word back: ‘Alan, you are testing higher than Will Smith.’ And then I was gone. I was done. There was no publicity, and my name was not mentioned.”
Tudyk claimed he was “shocked” by the move and exclaimed: “I was like, ‘Wait, nobody is going to know I’m in it!’ I put a lot into [that performance]. I had to move like a robot. At the time, I was very upset.”
His statement about testing higher than the lead actor has not been corroborated by Smith or anyone else who worked on the film.
The film, now released 21 years ago, follows Smith as a detective investigating the chief of a robotics company who has taken his own life. However, the detective soon comes to suspect that one of the robots, Sonny, has actually committed the murder himself.
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