The icon Will Smith compared to a biblical figure: “Someone that legends are made of”
To most people, Will Smith embodies the term ‘movie star’. He seems to prioritise entertainment and surface-level thrills over any sort of artistic merit in his films, essentially playing a version of himself in everything he does. He’s fronted massive franchises like ‘Men in Black’ and ‘Bad Boys’. Even his music career went out of its way to tell you he was safe for all ages and ready to be consumed by anyone.
Sometimes, though, Smith does put himself out there. He offered up a fantastic performance as Richard Williams, father of Serena and Venus, in the movie King Richard. He even won an Oscar for his endeavours, although that’s not the thing anyone remembers about that evening. Some 15 years prior, he’d been nominated again for his role in The Pursuit of Happyness, and five years before that, he took on the unenviable task of bringing to life one of the biggest sporting icons to have ever graced the planet.
In Ali, directed by Heat maestro Michael Mann, Will Smith stepped into the shoes—or should that be gloves—of the one and only Muhammad Ali. Beginning with his legendary heavyweight championship victory over Sonny Liston, dissecting his impact on the Civil Rights movement and his imprisonment for dodging the draft, and culminating with his epic ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ fight against George Foreman, the film does an incredible job capturing the wild life Ali led, both in and out of the ring.
Producer Paul Ardaji went to the boxer on his 50th birthday to get permission to make a film about his life. Having the man himself on board proved a valuable asset for the actor playing him, as he told Black Film. “The first time I met Ali, I was like everyone else. You’re meeting a biblical figure,” Smith revealed.
Adding: “You’re meeting someone that legends are made of. There are all these stories. Everyone has an Ali story. I met him 7 years ago, and he was aware that I had turned down the script to play him then. I didn’t know how he was going to respond. I walked up to him and said ‘Champ, pleasure to meet you,’ and Ali said, ‘Man, you’re almost pretty enough to play me’. That was our first meeting.”
Smith went through an insane regime to get into the right shape to play ‘The Greatest’. He reportedly trained for up to seven hours a day, gaining around 35lbs of muscle to best replicate Ali in his prime. He also supposedly trained at high altitude to simulate the final rounds of an intense fight.
Despite praise for Smith’s performance, including from his own director, it failed to make a splash at the box office. It took just $87m from a purported budget of between $107m and $118m. Its Christmas Day release date was blamed for this, especially as it put it in direct contention with The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
Ultimately, for Smith, these numbers didn’t matter. For the first time in his career, he had taken on a highly challenging part and proven that he could do it. He’d also forged a lifelong friendship with Ali, culminating in him helping to carry the great man’s coffin after his death in 2016.
