‘Willard Carrol Smith’, popularly known as ‘Will Smith’, is an American actor, rapper, and film producer who is known for his work in both the screen and music industry. He is one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars, with films that have grossed over $10 billion worldwide. In a recent interview with a radio station, ‘Kiss Xtra’, Smith recalled movies that he was offered first but rejected them for some reason, that’s when he mentioned that he was offered ‘Inception’ by Christopher Nolan first and would have played the lead role onstead of Leonardo Di Caprio had he accepted it.
About the film - ‘Inception’
Released on July 8, 2010, ‘Inception’ is one of the most loved films in Hollywood. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio as the main lead, and Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy, Tom Bergener, Dileep Rao, and Cillian Murphy as other ensemble cast, the film revolves around Dom Cobb (DiCaprio’s character), a professional thief who steals information from his targets by infiltrating their subconscious, who is offered an golden opportunity to erase all his criminal records as a payment for the implantation of another person’s idea into a target’s subconscious.
Inception was released in both conventional and IMAX theatres on July 16, 2010, and had its world premiere in London on July 8, 2010. The film was a blockbuster and debuted at No. 1 on its opening weekend, ultimately grossing US$62.7 million at the box office. Inception’s opening weekend gross made it the second highest grossing debut for a science fiction film that was not a sequel, adaptation or remake, after Avatar’s US$77 million opening-weekend gross in 2009.
This film was a major success in the career of Leonardo DiCaprio and was highly acclaimed for its unique yet complex plot and the interesting genre of science fiction. This is the reason why Smith now regrets rejecting this film, which could have been a big success for him back then.
What did Will Smith say?
The reason that Smith gave for rejecting this Hollywood classic by Christopher Nolan left the fans divided. In an interview with radio station ‘Kiss Xtra’, Smith revealed this secret and said that it hurts too bad. He exclaimed, “I don’t think I’ve ever said it publicly, but I am going to say it because we are opening up to one another. Christopher Nolan brought me ‘Inception’ first, and I didn’t get it. I’ve never said that out loud. Now that I think about it, it’s those movies that go into alternate realities… they don’t pitch well. But I am hurt by those, too.” He shared.
Smith even talked about significant other films, which he refused to do, including ‘The Matrix’ and ‘Django Unchained’ that gained immense popularity worldwide. The movie ‘The Matrix’ became a career high for ‘Keanu Reeves’.
However after the ‘Inception’ was reported to be a worldwide blockbuster, earning US$839 million globally many news sources revealed that Smith was offered the film after ‘Brad Pitt’, making him the second choice and after he rejected to do it, Nolan finally casted ‘Leonardo DiCaprio’ as the main lead.
Other movies rejected by Will Smith
As per sources, ‘Keanu Reeves, starrer ‘The Matrix’, which was a global hit, was also offered to Smith and he rejected it because he didn’t connect with the Wachowski sibling movie pitch, which, according to Smith, was more about their directing style than the actual story.
Smith posted a YouTube video in 2019 in which he was seen re-narrating the pitch that was narrated to him by the makers of ‘The Matrix’. He narrated, “We’re thinking like... imagine you’re in a fight. You, like, jump., Imagine if you could stop jumping in the middle of the jump. But then people could see around you 360 degrees while you stop jumping. We’re going to invent these cameras, and then people can see you whole jump when you stop in the middle of the jump.”
Another regretful addition to this list of rejected movies by Will Smith is the action-thriller ‘Django Unchained’, which he reportedly turned down because of its theme; he said he didn’t want to “make a slavery film about vengeance”.