Cinemapor that Will Smith didn’t want to act in The Origin, Nolan’s classic film?

Throughout the career, Will Smith she starred in hits that became classics, both on television and in the cinema, and A crazy in the piece (1990-1996), The Bad Boys (1995), Looking for Felicidadand (2006), I am the legend (2007) and MIB – Men in Black (1997). However, he almost starred in The origin (2010), one of the main films of filmography Christopher Nolan.

Second Smith, Nolan invited him to interpret Dom Cobbcharacter interpreted by Leonardo DiCaprio. The movie also had Cillian Murphy (Fischer), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Arthur), Tom Hardy (Eames), Elliot Page (Ariadne), Marion Cotillard (Bare), Ken Watanabe (Saito) and Michael Caine (Miles).

“I think I never said that publicly, but I’ll say why we’re opening each other. Chris Nolan brought me The origin And I didn’t understand, “recalled the star of Hollywood In an interview with KISS XTRA (via NME).

I never said that out loud… now that I think about it, it’s those movies that address these alternative realities. They do not have a good argument. But these also hurt me.

Will Smith Reveals Director Christopher Nolan Brought Him The Movie “Inception” First, But He Turned It Down And Says Movies About Alternate Realities Don’t Pitch Well.

(🎥 Kiss XTra) pic.twitter.com/jwcvzfiumg

– The Art of Dialogue (@artofdialoger_) June 15, 2025

However, this is not the first time when Smith He spoke publicly about refusing a film that was later very successful. Remember below:

Matrix

Already imagined Will Smith in the role of Neoprotagonist of the franchise Matrixinstead of Keanu Reeves? Yes, it almost happened. However, the actor refused due to the complex visual effects present in the script – and he didn’t believe they could be done.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith

Will Smith also denied the role of the co-projectonist in Mr. & Mrsa Smithmovie starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. The direction of the film thought of several couples to be the protagonists, and in a moment arrived in Will Smith and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

However, the conversations between actors and direction did not extend, and Smith He chose to participate, also as the protagonist, Hitch – Loving Counselor (2005).

Free django

In an interview with Entertainment Weeklythe artist explained why he refused Free django (2012), directed by Tarantino Quentin and starring Jamie Foxx.

“Django was not the lead role, I thought kind of ‘I need to be on the lead role’. The other character was the protagonist,” he said about the role of Dr. Schultzinterpreted by Christoph Waltzwhich took the Oscar of Best Supporting Actor by the work.

Smith also said he asked for Tarantine so that the title character was more important in history. Besides, he did not agree with the script and thought that Django should be the hero of history and kill the villain Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio).

Already The Hollywood Reporterhe also said that violent content has become a question during the negotiation period: “It’s as perfect a story as you could like: a guy who learns to kill to rescue his wife who was taken as a slave. This idea is perfect. Quentin [Tarantino] And I couldn’t understand each other. “

I wanted to make the best love story that African Americans had ever seen … we talked, we met, we sat for hours and hours thinking about it. I really wanted to make that movie, but I felt that the only way was that it had to be a love story, not a story of revenge. I don’t believe in violence as a reaction to violence … I just couldn’t connect with violence as the answer. Love needed to be the answer.

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