Will Smith on why he wanted to turn down Oscar-nominated role
Will Smith is a renowned actor who has been featured in various award-winning films and TV shows and is one of the most recognisable faces in Hollywood. From The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air to Men In Black, there is no denying that the Philadelphia native has taken on some fantastic roles.
However, during a recent appearance on the Full Send podcast, the Oscar-award-winning icon admitted that there was one character he nearly rejected that ended up being one of his biggest movie roles.
Unveiling the movie he wasn’t initially interested in, Smith recalled, “I did not want to make Pursuit Of Happyness. I was like, ‘Who wants to go to the movies to see a dude get a job in the 80s?’ The movie is about a guy who gets a job.”
The I Am Legend star admitted that it was his manager who eventually convinced him to take the role. Detailing this, Smith reflected, “It was a really great story, but y’know [my manager James Lassiter] has exquisite taste. He said, ‘I promise you’. I read, and I loved it; I just didn’t think it had box-office viability, and it ended up making, y’know, $300million.”
“So Quincy plays a theme song for The Fresh Prince. It was that old-school style. So I listened, and I was like, ‘Ohhh… wow…. yeah.’ Jeff was at the hotel, and I was like, ‘Jeff, Quincy played a theme song. Dude, it’s no good at all.'”
He continued, “Jeff was like, ‘Yo, just write something,’” he explained. “So I wrote the theme song that night in the hotel room with Jeff. He had a four-track. So we recorded it.”
He concluded, “So I played it for Quincy, and he sat there and listened, and I’m shaking and sweating. And he said, ‘Well, that’s better than that bullshit I did’ […] We did a whole record [with] a second verse, so Quincy made the edit and that became the theme song.”
You can watch Will Smith’s appearance on the Full Sned podcast in the video below.