Will Smith Creates His Filmography Mount Rushmore With These Four Flicks
Will Smith is more than an actor; he is an Oscar-winning, record-breaking movie star. So, it’s safe to say he knows a thing or two about box office success. While promoting the fourth installment of the Bad Boys franchise, the Philly native appeared on Hot Ones to define what makes a hit movie and confirm what he’d put in the Mount Rushmore of his own films.
Smith told host Sean Evans that he believes his personal best film is the 2006 biopic, The Pursuit of Happyness. Following that, he said it’d be the first Men In Black from 1997.
“The direction, cinematography and music. I think among the most fun I’ve ever had making a movie is like Bad Boys and Aladdin like just the most, the most fun, but in terms of all-around best movies, best performances, if I had to put four of them in a time capsule, it would be The Pursuit of Happyness, the first Men In Black, I Am Legend, and probably King Richard.”
When speaking on I Am Legend earlier in the episode, Smith admitted that he wanted to adopt Abbey, the dog from the film, because of her brilliance.
“It was like Abbey spoke English […] like she literally could understand you. It was the weirdest thing. Abbey was the breadwinner of her family and she had to stay, but it was really amazing to watch. In the scene where she bites, bites, bites […] where I choke her out and she lays out, Abbey is doing that. He trained Abbey to go limp and I’m like ‘how do you train a dog to go limp?’ It was like working with a brilliant actress.”
In terms of hit films, Smith feels the definition is the same, but it’s just harder to achieve such a feat. “You used to be able to put some explosions in the trailer and a couple of good jokes and people were there. And television is so good, there are things that people just aren’t going to leave their house for anymore. There’s definitely a higher demand for a certain type of film for people to leave their homes,” he explained.
This may be true, but, according to early reviews, fans will want to leave their homes for his newest film, Bad Boys: Ride Or Die—out in theaters on Friday, June 7.
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