Will Smith has been premiere actor for more than two decades. One major film he turned down was Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained.
“It was about the creative direction of the story,” he says during a recent roundtable with The Hollywood Reporter. “To me, it’s as perfect a story as you could ever want: a guy that learns how to kill to retrieve his wife that has been taken as a slave. That idea is perfect. And it was just that Quentin [Tarantino] and I couldn’t see [eye to eye]. I wanted to make the greatest love story that African-Americans had ever seen.”
Smith says that he didn’t agree with the emphasis on violence in the script. He cites the recent attacks in Paris as part of his reasoning for why, to him, violence does not solve problems.
“We talked, we met, we sat for hours and hours about it,” he says. “I wanted to make that movie so badly, but I felt the only way was, it had to be a love story, not a vengeance story. I don’t believe in violence as the reaction to violence. So when I’m looking at that, it’s like, ‘No, no, no. It has to be for love.’ We can’t look at what happens in Paris [the terrorist attacks] and want to f— somebody up for that. Violence begets violence. So I just couldn’t connect to violence being the answer. Love had to be the answer.”
Will Smith Says He Had Lost His Love For Acting
Elsewhere in the interview, he explains that a few years ago, he lost his love for acting. After some self-exploration, he found a new sense of purpose.
“I realize I had hit a ceiling in my talent,” he says. “I had a great run that I thought was fantastic, and I realized that I had done everything that I could do with the ‘me’ that I had. And I didn’t work for about two years, and I [went through] marriage counseling, 50 parenting books, all of that stuff. And I really dived into me, and then all of a sudden it was like, ‘Oh!’ And I found the connection. Your work can never really be better than you are, you know? Your work can’t be deeper than you are.”
Smith continues that his daughter, Willow, helped him change his perspective on success.
“I’ve always been really product-oriented,” he says. “I want to win. When I do something, I want to be number one, and I want to smash it. And I have a 15-year-old daughter, and she got me and shifted my focus from product to people. It took a couple of years, but as soon as I got knocked off of product and started shifting to people, the whole world opened up for me again, and acting opened up in a whole new way — to not go into day one of a movie trying to figure out what everybody has to do so we win versus opening up and every person is a whole new world. [Before that,] when I went into a meeting with a director, my focus was: Can this guy win, can this girl win? And it was a pathology that broke for me a couple of years ago, and I fell in love and then I couldn’t imagine what else I could do that could add so much to my life other than acting.”
Whatever, movie was better without his sorry ass anyways. Will Smith sucks.
lol fuck outta here
I hate how niggas act like this bitch nigga is the standard for black actors. Will Smith sucks!
Will Smith killed 100 ppl in Bad Boys and Bad Boys 2
Oh hoe ass niggah*always acting like he’s the ambassador of good*…I don’t curse in my music yet film is fine*this bitch is going to be dead shot in the suicide squad movie*what’s his profession in the comics & homie below already brought up bad boys*fuck big willie*long live the 80s & 90s*
Tarantino is a big fan of blaxplotation flicks of the 70s, Detroit 9000 being one of his faves. I prefer Inglorious bastards over Django but it was still entertaining. Someone commented earlier that Will Smith sucks. I don’t think he sucks but he is highly overrated, he is like the black Tom Cruise now. His best performance was Ali.
Will was trying to make another shitty movie
Some of yall need some help.
Brothas you need to view The BlackMan(State of Emergency) on youtube, cause we need some direction about NOW!!!
This is a Hip Hop site am i correct ?/ If Will Smith was releasing another try at some music,, maybe it should be on here, but common.. I come here to read about things involving the rap game.. wtf,, hip hop dx?// need to step ur news game up. Put me on, where do i apply? i got you.
Hip hop is bigger than rap….smh
Will Smith is so gay
Will Smith is such a tool. That entire family is just off the wall.
Heard Brad Pitt say Tarantinos scripts are so tight, an actor wouldn’t even think of improving or changing it. Yet when they’re filming, Tarantino will change on the fly and ask for actors input. The fact that Will Smith would flat out ask Tarantino to change that shit to his liking just shows everything you need to know about that narcissistic clown.
Wild Wild West movie was super racist for no reason .
good thing Jamie Foxx exists; cuz he fuckin killed that role (no pun intended)… Will Smith is dope but if he doesn’t see that Django is an actual love story, he is in fact buggin… A man enslaves my wife; best believe it’s going to be hell and high water that I’m doing whatever is necessary to get her back.
I heard… the Real Reason why he turn down the role that was written the entire time by Tarantino with Will Smith (I mean he literally said that before it was shot) in mind was because Will felt that Django’s role was a supporting role and that Christoph Waltz was the actual main character. And I agree, Christoph Waltz’s character Is the central character of Django Unchained.
So Will saying he wanted the ultimate black folk love story or whatever is another way of saying make me the central character.
Its all bullsh***t on what he is saying about violence!!! What happened in Paris is like a paper cut compare on what is happening daily in Syria, Iraq & Afghanistan. What have you done Mr. Smith about this????
Hypocrite!!!
Will is right, and Django was a lame movie with a boring plot. Good for Will that he can finally focus on the important things in life.
stupid
it was during slavery times….of course there was gonna be violence….come on will…
It’s easy for ‘love’ to be the answer when you’re a billionaire. Everyone loves you. Cops don’t fuck with you. Rich people don’t shit on you. Your landlord isn’t fucking you over. You’re not being discriminated against. Don’t get me wrong, I got mad respect and love for the homie. “I’m the Rapper, He’s the DJ” was the first record I ever owned, and it’s still an underrated classic record. It changed my life at the time as a little kid, and Will has been classy and respectable for the duration of his illustrious career. But over the years Will Smith has distanced himself from Hip-Hop culture, and to some degree, black culture. You get the feeling he’d be offended if you referred to him as the Fresh Prince. I was shocked that he was actually bringing Jeff on tour with him. I understand that a human being is not obligated to take a stance for or against anything, but when you have that much influence and pull, it’s weak NOT to. He’s TOO safe. You already have your fortune and have made all your dreams come true, what are you risking by speaking up publicly? Not being America’s favorite black man? You already held that mantle for 20 years fam, now maybe use that platform to raise some awareness of what is going on in this country, or in another country, or ANYTHING. Django Unchained was not merely a violent movie. That movie was POWERFUL because it was historically accurate in it’s portrayal of slavery. It wasn’t pretty, it was horrific. But in the midst of that horror, love was still possible. It WAS a love story, it just wasn’t a fuckin’ disney fairy tale, like Will’s life. Not every kid has an uncle in Bel-Air to run to when he’s getting his ass whooped in the streets.
Excellent reply.
I don’t consider the premise of the movie violent. Violence is when you violates someones will without any preconditions. This movie Django’s wife was taken, he had the right to use force to get her back that was the only way he could have saved. If someone try to take whats yours or take your life, you have the right to use force to get what is yours back.