Will Smith would have been disastrous in The Matrix and now I want to see it
this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2026
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I was thinking, thank god he turned it down.
Inception, on the other hand - I can’t recall any of the characters, so I don’t know which role he was considering. It’s a perfect Will Smith movie.
If memory serves me right the protagonist in Inception was confused a lot and Wil can pull off confused.
If memory serves me right the protagonist in Inception was confused a lot
Dicarpio's character wasn't confused, you may be thinking of Elliot Page's character, but I wouldn't count that character as the main protagonist.
I barely remember it. I was pretty high at the time.
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I'm imagining his robot hating Detective Spooner from iRobot, walking around the matrix being pissed off. Or in inception confused and pissed off.
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Imagine the tie-in music video he would have done.
With the squid machines doing hip hop dances in the background
Woo, ha-ha ha-ha.
Given that he turned it down for Wild Wild West, use that as a basis.
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Sean Connery turned down both Gandalf in Lord of the Rings and Morpheus in The Matrix because he didn't understand the scripts. He turned down Dumbledore in Harry Potter because it was too fantastical. Then he tried a reverse approach where he accepted the next role he didn't understand, because clearly that was where the money was at. So he accepted Allan Quartermain in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, a movie which flopped hard. Then he ragequit the industry and retired.
I love that movie, I thought he did great in it too
Same here. It’s a fun action romp with some interesting characters. I get that it’s not peak cinema but it’s still good.
Some of the CGI in it is insanely good too (the invisible man), Corridor Crew did a react episode or two about it.
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The movie made a decent bit of money, just terrible reviews.
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Will smiths thing is most similar to dwayne johnson, he wanted to be the LEAD or the most prominent actor and not the side character
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I'm so glad he skips movies he would have ruined
Strongly agree. As an actor Will Smith always brings some sass to movies. I feel like he would've ruined a few scenes. Especially him teasing Agent Smith unnecessarily.
He slapped a man on national television because he made a joke about his wife. That wasn't even a mean joke, it was just in somewhat bad taste. (He was also laughing at the joke until he saw his wife roll her eyes at it)
He is quite dumb
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He also turned down Django Unchained. Will Smith is just shit at picking roles.
Thank God. He would have ruined it.
he's also extremely dedicated to maintaining his brand. turning down Django Unchained does feel like a HUGE wiff to me though. Django is basically Deadshot if Deadshot lived in the Antebellum South (presumably after the California gold rush since he spends some time in Colorado). maybe Tarantino films can't ever fit the Will Smith toxic positivity brand?
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From the interview I heard they pitched the matrix terribly.
Back in the late 90s, I have no idea how you'd pitch that any other way. It's a miracle that movie got made.
I believe even the Wachowski's said they pitched it terribly. Apparently they focused on bullet time and did a terrible job explaining it. So nothing made sense. Then you realize it was a new age Film Noire, and that wasn't exactly going to entice funding. Other than Keanu Reeves I don't think any of the cast was well known, and I'm not even sure how big Keanu Reeves was. Other than Speed it was an odd assortment of movies for him.
Here's will smith https://youtu.be/hm2szuXKgL8&t=70
Keanu was big. Bill & Ted was iconic, after that he was in Point Break, a fairly successful action flick and Speed was massive. Yeah he did some more niche stuff like Johnny Mnemonic, but makes me think he makes more sense for something like the Matrix. Will Smith opted for Wild Wild West over Matrix, which obviously wasn't a success, but fit with the kinds of movies he was doing at the time.
Makes sense for a guy to go from Speed to Johnny Mnemonic to the Matrix, and it also makes sense for a guy to go from Bad Boys to Independence Day to Men in Black to Wild Wild West.
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Some people are not set up for science fiction or fantasy at all. Will Smith is a borderline case, though.
I think with The Matrix specifically it has to do with the physicality. Late 90s Will Smith was in shape and could do big, bombastic action, but I can't imagine him doing precise martial arts moves without it looking like a comedy.
Yeah but that would go both ways. Imagine he did the matrix and it maybe worked out. People would now be like: can you imagine the shitty actor Keanu Reeves was going to play neo in the matrix?
Thats what we all said about Keanu. He was a joke at the time. Or rather basically type cast. Even in the more serious roles he was pretty goofy. Speed comes to mind. The Matrix gave me and many i know a bigger liking for the young silly Ted Logan.
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I don't get people sometimes. Here's a hollywood elite who thinks they have the ability to physically assault another person (and so fucking brazenly in front of the whole world) and never be held responsible. Fuck Will Smith and anything he profits from including recognition of past performances. Comments in here are acting like a bunch of wannabe-nostalgia-cucks who don't care as long as the individual did a silly little dance and entertained them some. Dude needs serious rehabilitation and a reality check which will never come to him because people would rather talk about his performances instead of the actual person.
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Nah sure, giant mecha-spider in the Wild West is more straightforward I guess.
(Speaking of which Kevin Smith did a ride of a story about a superman movie that never got made, which ties into that very same Mecha-spider)
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maybe he just didnt get the point of the story or something. I dont think you can act well if you cant get into the character
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Independence Day is my favourite movie with Will Smith, my second favourite is the one where he is fighting Zombies can't recall the name. He was for a good long while the most bankable actor of colour in Hollywood ahead of Danzel and Morgan Freeman. TENET would have been a different movie with him alongside Robert Pattinson. The sad thing is how he raised his children to become part of the publicity machine instead of seeking out academic excellence. He fed them directly into the maw of the media machine where the last name and nepotism rule the roost. Sad really I am sure some of that can be laid at the feet of his practice of scientology.
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Django Unchained too.
Thank the lord!
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