Related Articles
Actor Will Smith is known for major Hollywood blockbusters like Men in Black, Bad Boys, and Independence Day, and he nearly starred in another gigantic franchise–The Matrix. The franchise celebrates its 25th anniversary this year (and is back in theaters, too!), and with that in mind, we’re looking back at the story of why Smith elected to pass on playing Neo in The Matrix.
The story comes first-hand from Smith, as he recalled the account in an update on his YouTube account five years ago. “This is one of those stories I’m not proud of, but it’s the truth. I did turn down Neo in The Matrix,” Smith explained.
Saying no to Men in Black came first
Smith was a shining star in the late ’90s, having starred on the TV series Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990-1996) and the films Bad Boys (1995) and Independence Day (1996). He was a bonafide Hollywood megastar, and he was fielding all kinds of pitches for his next movie. One of these was Men In Black, a film he didn’t originally want to make. Having already starred in Independence Day, Smith said he felt hesitant about being typecast as “the alien guy.”
“It was a crazy time in my life. It was like however I threw the ball, it was going in. I had done Independence Day the year before, so I was like, ‘Ehh, I’m not doing another alien movie. I don’t want to be the alien movie guy.’ So I turned down Men in Black,” he said.
But then Steven Spielberg, a producer on Men in Black, called Smith to ask why he didn’t want to be in the movie. Smith told Spielberg about his fears of being typecast, but Spielberg convinced him to do it by encouraging him to lean on Spielberg’s years of experience and to trust the filmmaker’s judgment. Smith made the movie, of course, and it spawned two main sequels he starred in alongside Tommy Lee Jones.
The Wachowskis and their Matrix pitch
In 1998, Smith was an even bigger Hollywood star and was the top choice to play Neo in The Matrix. But this time, it wasn’t a fear of being typecast that pushed Smith to pass on The Matrix. Instead, he simply didn’t understand the vision that The Wachowskis had for the film, which would eventually be released in 1999 with Keanu Reeves in the lead role.
“They came in and had only done like one movie [Bound]. They came in and made a pitch for The Matrix. As it turns out, they’re geniuses. But there is a fine line in a pitch meeting between genius and what I experienced in the meeting,” he said.
So what was the pitch? Smith said the Wachowskis pitched the now-famous sequence where Neo jumps in the air and the cameras pan around him in 360 degrees. It’s a very impressive sequence in the finished film, but Smith–understandably–wasn’t sold. Here’s how Smith recalls the pitch from the Wachowskis going:
“‘Like, imagine you’re in a fight, and then you jump–imagine if you could stop jumping in the middle of the jump, but then people could see around you, 360, while you were jumping. And then we’re going to invent these cameras and people can see the whole jump while you stop in the middle of the jump.'”
Smith passed on The Matrix and made Wild Wild West (1999) instead. Smith has had a long and successful career, but making that movie was not one of his finer moments. “I’m not proud of it,” Smith said of the film (which was also the name of a song that played during the movie’s end-credits sequence).
Keanu was perfect
Smith said he holds no ill will for Reeves, saying he was “perfect” for the role, as was Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus. In fact, Smith said when he was in the running for Neo, the filmmakers wanted Val Kilmer to play Morpheus, so it would have been a very different movie indeed.
“Keanu was perfect. Laurence Fishburne was perfect. If I had done it, because I’m black, Morpheus wouldn’t have been black. Because they were looking at Val Kilmer. I was going to be Neo and Val Kilmer was going to be Morpheus,” Smith said. “So I probably would have messed The Matrix up. I would have ruined it. So I did y’all a favor.”
Smith’s legacy
Smith enjoyed great success in the ’90s with Fresh Prince, Bad Boys, Independence Day, and Men in Black, and the hits kept coming in the 2000s. He starred in I, Robot (2004), Hitch (2005), and The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) over the span of just three years, earning an Academy Award nomination for The Pursuit of Happyness to boot. Not all of of Smith’s films later in his career landed, though, as his leading roles in M. Night Shyalaman’s After Earth (with his son as co-star) and Gemini Man (in which he fights against a younger, digitally de-aged version of himself) were considered duds.
But in 2021, Smith starred in King Richard as Richard Williams, the father of tennis phenoms Venus and Serena Williams, earning an Academy Award win for his performance. His win at the Oscars was overshadowed by his decision to come up on stage and slap host Chris Rock in the face, an act that he later apologized for. After King Richard, Smith starred in 2022’s drama Emancipation and Bad Boys: Ride of Die in 2024.
Does Smith have regrets about passing on Neo and The Matrix? By his own admission, he’s not proud of the decision to say no. After all, it would have been another windfall for Smith, as The Matrix films earned Reeves many millions over the years. But he’s far from the first actor to pass on what would become a lucrative and career-defining role.
Tom Selleck was the first choice to play Indiana Jones but turned it down, while John Travolta said no to Forrest Gump. Burt Reynolds, meanwhile, passed on playing Han Solo in Star Wars, while Leonardo DiCaprio was offered the role of Anakin/Darth Vader. Hollywood is full of “what-if” stories, and Smith passing on Neo is just one in a sea of examples.
