Why didn't you do it, asshole

Will Smith’s rejection of ‘The Matrix’ was one of the most extreme cases of actor regret. The actor turned down Neo to star in one of science fiction’s biggest failures, which he calls his worst.

Reteaming with Barry Sonnenfeld seemed like a surefire hit after Smith met with the Wachowskis in 1996 but didn’t understand what they were pitching him. Men in Black had a huge box office and Wild Wild West had one of the biggest budgets ever.

Smith has admitted that he might have blown The Matrix if he had been the lead, but he has also regretted not being Neo. The star of I Am Legend 2 was asked what advice he would give himself if he could travel back in time to another moment in his career while promoting Gemini Man, his biggest failure:

He addressed the issue more politely on Stephen Colbert’s show in 2019: “I would say, ‘Man, don’t do ‘Wild Wild West.'” I said, ‘Man, do Neo, do Neo!’ I was offered ‘The Matrix.'” Evidently, it still bothers him.

Smith would probably regret Wild Wild West even if The Matrix didn’t exist, as it grossed $221 million on a $170 million budget, with some sources putting it at $241 million. Things get worse when you consider that The Matrix grossed $467 million worldwide on a $63 million budget.

It’s fun to imagine what might’ve been with film classics and dregs. Casting can be a strange alchemy between actor and role, and when the formula is off, it’s easy to wonder if the spell will work. Imagine Robert Redford as Michael Corleone. What about Tom Selleck as Indiana Jones? It’s interesting to imagine Tim Burton’s Batman with Bill Murray instead of Robin Williams.

Another famous “what if?” is Neo’s Matrix casting. The 1999 film, which turned 25 this month, is beloved for reinventing Keanu Reeves. The film stars him as Neo, a sad sack hacker who discovers he’s a superpowered messiah sent to free us from digital prison. While performing Kung fu, he looks cool in sunglasses.

Smith ruled the world in 1998, when The Matrix began. He had four-quadrant blockbusters Independence Day (1996) and Men in Black (1997) in two consecutive summers. He switched genres in 1998 with Tony Scott’s political and prescient techno thriller Enemy of the State. However, Scott was a respected hit director who made Crimson Tide, True Romance, and Top Gun, one of the biggest movie star calling cards ever. Smith was between radio hits like “Miami” and “Gettin’ Jiggy With It.”

In contrast, the Wachowskis, two siblings, made Bound, a high-concept thriller with so many subtly placed trans metaphors that it’s unlikely three-quarters of 1996 viewers noticed them. Their filmmaking style was a million miles from Smith’s late 1990s mindset, which he humorously and self-effacingly recounted in the video below.

Smith said, “It was a crazy time in my life,” in his 2019 YouTube channel video. “No matter how I threw the ball, it went in.” Smith also said he initially turned down Men in Black because he didn’t want to be a “alien movie guy,” but after Steven Spielberg convinced him, he became obsessed with global marketability.

Smith said the Wachowskis pitched The Matrix. I discovered they’re geniuses! It’s hard to tell genius from what I experienced in a pitch meeting. According to Smith’s humorous and possibly slanted recollection, the Wachowskis came to him and stammered through a confusing pitch. “Imagine you could stop in the middle of the jump,” Smith said with a thick accent. “But then people could see 360 while you stopped jumping.”

It’s a funny story, but it doesn’t explain why Wild Wild West was so safe. Two years before the Wachowskis’ pitch, Smith was hesitant to work with Barry Sonnenfeld on Men in Black until Spielberg intervened. Men in Black is Smith’s proudest work and one of his biggest hits. With Wild Wild West, he saw an opportunity to make another high-concept action/comedy/genre film with Sonnenfeld as director and an affable older actor as a two-hander. The first red flag is that while Tommy Lee Jones was happy to be Smith’s straight man on MiB, Smith and co-star Kevin Cline wanted to be Wild Wild West’s “funny one”. None succeeded.

Why didn’t you do it, asshole

By ki0nk

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