Will Smith’s one and only favourite movie of all time: “Even with the quick ending”
With his career taking him from the summit of the music industry to rock bottom, and then on to sitcom fame and Hollywood superstardom, before he became an industry pariah in one fell slap, the unexpected has become expected with Will Smith, and the same applies to his favourite movie of all time.
It’s been a wild ride for the former ‘Fresh Prince’, who cemented himself as a Grammy-winning musician at the age of 21 when ‘Parents Just Don’t Understand’ won ‘Best Rap Performance’, but he almost went broke the very same year, and only signed on for the TV show bearing his nickname because he needed the money.
Once he outgrew the small screen, Smith wasted no time in becoming either the biggest or second-biggest movie star of his generation, depending on how he was feeling about his silent rivalry with Tom Cruise at the time. These days, though, there’s some rebuilding to do, thanks to his Oscars infamy.
One of the most fascinating things about the actor, producer, and occasional rapper’s rise to fame is that he didn’t set out specifically to become a successful musician, performer, or anything else; he wanted to be a superstar, full stop, and it would be an understatement to say he’d managed it by the mid-1990s.
Eddie Murphy was the first Black actor to headline a succession of studio-backed smash hits at the global box office, but Smith picked up the baton and ran with it by becoming the first and only actor to headline eight consecutive $100 million movies in the United States as part of a remarkable run that saw 16 of his 18 starring roles between 1995 and 2013 clear nine figures globally.
His insatiable desire to conquer the mainstream can be traced right back to the first time he saw Star Wars, and just like everyone else who was a kid in 1977 when George Lucas’ game-changing sci-fi was released, it rocked his world. It may have been a formative and life-altering experience, but it’s not his favourite film.
Star Wars and Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ video “were the most influential pieces of entertainment art” for the young Smith, which makes it all the more surprising that his biggest onscreen influence was a ‘Golden Age’ icon. “In terms of film,” he shared with the Cannes Film Festival. “Probably Humphrey Bogart.”
“The amount of movies he made,” Smith continued. “The film that I’ve studied most is Casablanca. That’s close to being a perfect movie. Even with the quick ending.” That’s not his all-time favourite either, with that honour going to a David Lean masterpiece that won seven of the eight Oscars it was nominated for, including ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’.
“The Bridge Over the River Kwai is my favourite movie,” he declared, with a 1957 wartime epic helmed by one of cinema’s most influential auteurs coming out of left field as being hailed as the pinnacle of onscreen excellence by someone who turned effects-heavy blockbusters into their bread and butter.
