The iconic role Will Smith didn’t hesitate turning down: “There is no way”
Will Smith has played a lot of iconic characters in his time, even if they are mostly just variations of himself.
From Muhammad Ali to Agent J to the Fresh Prince himself, Smith is one of those actors who you could mention to a hundred different people and get a hundred different responses back. However, like any famous face worth their salt, he could have added even more notable gigs to his CV.
Smith famously rejected Christopher Nolan’s Inception because he “didn’t get it”. Quentin Tarantino wanted him to play the title role in Django Unchained, but he ultimately decided that the tone of the film wasn’t for him. Then there’s his biggest missed opportunity: turning down the part of Neo in The Matrix to play cowboy superspy Jim West in Wild Wild West. A decision that bad would have destroyed a lesser man’s career.
There might actually be a character bigger than Neo that Smith missed out on, although his reasoning was a lot more solid this time. Speaking to MTV in 2008, the slap-happy Oscar winner revealed that he had been asked to step into the iconic blue and red costume of the Man of Steel.
“The last ‘Superman’ I got offered, the script came, and I was like, ‘There is no way I’m playing Superman!’” he said. “I had already done Jim West, and you can’t be messing up white people’s heroes in Hollywood! You mess up white people’s heroes in Hollywood, you’ll never work in this town again!”
The specific version of Krypton’s finest Smith is referring to is the one in Superman Returns. The first Superman project in several decades, this Bryan Singer-helmed production served as a direct sequel to Superman II, ignoring the events of Christopher Reeve’s final two outings altogether. Smith was one of many actors put forward to play Clark Kent, including future Superman Henry Cavill, but the part ultimately landed at the feet of Brandon Routh, possibly because he was the spitting image of Reeve in his prime.
He might have made them quite flippantly, but Smith’s remarks regarding Superman’s skin tone are worth considering. Even in an era of race-blind casting and gender-swapping, DC’s greatest hero has never been presented as anything but a white man. There have been variations on the character in the comics, mostly through multiverse storylines, but the canonical appearance of Superman has always defaulted to white.
Given that Superman Returns was released in 2006, it’s actually astonishing that the studio was willing to take this big a leap. Sure, they went for the whitest-looking guy ever in the end, but the intention was there.
Smith wouldn’t stay away from superheroes entirely, however. He played the title role in Hancock, a satirical take on the genre heavily inspired by Kal-El. In 2016, he starred in an actual DC movie when he played Deadshot in Suicide Squad. Yes, that movie might have been a flop, but at least it wasn’t as bad – or as costly – as Superman Returns.
