“I couldn’t see the road”: the iconic role Will Smith turned down for years
It may not be a coincidence that Will Smith waited for a rare period of downturn before finally accepting a role he’d been dodging for years, in what proved to be a shrewd decision in both the short and long term.
He didn’t waste any time making the leap from musician and sitcom favourite to megastar, with Smith headlining Bad Boys, Independence Day, Men in Black, and Enemy of the State in consecutive years between 1995 and 1998, cementing himself as one of the biggest draws in the business.
Declining The Matrix in favour of Wild Wild West is one of those decisions that’s going to haunt him until the end of his days, while a rare dramatic turn in Robert Redford’s fantastical sports flick The Legend of Bagger Vance put Smith in the precarious – and previously unthinkable – position of lending his name to two flops in a row.
Salvation was lurking just around the corner, though, after he rebounded in spectacular style and earned the first Academy Award nomination of his career playing Muhammad Ali in Michael Mann’s boxing biopic. It was a long time coming, with Smith admitting to the BBC he’d been toying with the idea for close to a decade.
“I turned the script down for years. I think I was around 27 the first time it was presented to me,” he said. “But I couldn’t see the road from Will Smith – Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to Muhammad Ali. If someone said that I had to become Ali, I wouldn’t have known what to do that first day. Michael Mann was the first person who illustrated what he called the course syllabus for becoming Muhammad Ali.”
Ali initially entered development in 1992 when producer Paul Ardaji secured the rights to the iconic pugilist’s life story. The subject still had to sign off on an adaptation of his existence, which he did on his 50th birthday. Ron Howard was the first name attached, but when he dropped out, Smith suggested his Men in Black and Wild Wild West director Barry Sonnenfeld.
That didn’t happen either, with Smith’s resistance having been worn down, only for Ali to end up without a director. Fortunately, Mann stepped into the breach in February 2000, which came after Spike Lee had briefly flirted with the biographical drama, but it would be another three months before the leading man officially signed on the dotted line.
One of the biggest criticisms before the movie’s release was the fact Smith didn’t resemble Ali in the slightest, even if they did share a distinct brand of charisma and charm. Those concerns didn’t matter in the end, with his powerful turn instantly taking its place as one of the best of his career, and it’s a position that’s been maintained for almost a quarter of a century.
