“You’re too big”: why Steven Spielberg once refused to cast Will Smith
Success can arrive quickly in Hollywood, and when it does, it can be difficult to keep your perspective. Even the biggest stars are not immune to letting fame go to their heads for a moment, something Will Smith discovered the hard way after a blunt lesson from one of the industry’s most respected veterans.
Smith has been a movie star for over three decades now, and he remains one of the most inherently charismatic people on the planet. He’s an actor who has headlined franchises, portrayed famous historical figures, and made use of his comedy chops. Even if controversy seems to surround him at all times, Smith is one of the few actors that global audiences will sign up to see, regardless of what film he is in.
Even though many of Smith’s films have been massive hits, he hasn’t worked with as many of the greatest living filmmakers as his contemporaries, such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx, Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington, and Don Cheadle. According to Smith, a conversation with an Academy Award-winning director showed why that may have been.
“I ran into Steven Spielberg at a party, and I jokingly asked him why he never hired me for his movies,” Smith said. “Steven said, ‘Oh, you’re too big for my movies.’ I laughed it off. I said, ‘What the heck is that supposed to mean? Am I too tall?’”
Smith said he realised that Spielberg was looking for actors to disappear into roles for his films, and that he had become such a notorious celebrity that it would have been a distraction.
“It clicked in my mind,” Smith said. “The persona I created had become too big for the stories I want to tell. I had started to overshadow the characters I play. People see me on screen and go, ‘Oh, look, it’s Will Smith.’”
It’s to Smith’s credit that he noticed this issue and immediately tried to correct it by agreeing to take a supporting role in The Legend of Bagger Vance, a historical fantasy drama directed by the Oscar-winning Robert Redford.
“I thought ‘Bagger Vance’ was a great opportunity for me to just turn it off,” Smith said. “This is the first time in my career that I completely surrendered all my instincts and my natural desire to bend scenes into the Will Smith thing. I just completely gave myself as a tool to Robert Redford to create the film he wanted to create.”
If Smith’s instincts were in the right place, he had simply chosen the wrong project; The Legend of Bagger Vance was not one of Redford’s best films, and featured a depiction of race relations that felt antiquated and borderline offensive. Smith can’t be blamed for being involved in the film, especially since his performance is the best part, but it didn’t indicate a change of momentum within his career.
Smith didn’t get the opportunity to truly transform until he agreed to play Muhammad Ali in the biopic Ali from director Michael Mann, which required him to do intense physical training to become the greatest boxer of all-time. It landed Smith the first of his three Academy Award nominations for ‘Best Actor’, as he would be recognised again for playing the inspirational stockbroker Chris Gardner in The Pursuit of Happyness, and then won the award for his role as Richard Williams in the biopic King Richard. It is a bit ironic that Smith, someone who has spent years developing a very specific persona, has found his greatest success when pretending to be other people entirely.
