10 Actors Who Stupidly Turned Down Iconic Roles
6. Will Smith - The Matrix
The Role: Neo
The fact that Will Smith passed on the opportunity to play Neo in order to make Wild Wild West makes his decision not to star in The Matrix even worse, but his initial choice - based on the fact that he couldn't see the film doing well - seems like a fairly big mistake even without that nasty little caveat.
Even worse it robbed us of the chance to see Smith flexing his muscles in that role rather than Keanu Reeves, who played the numb modern malcontent well, but whose "skills" were found more wanting when the role changed for the second and third films. But then even Smith probably couldn't have saved the Matrix sequels.
He spoke to Wired to state he was fine missing out on the role in retrospect:
You know, The Matrix is a difficult concept to pitch. In the pitch, I just didnt see it. I watched Keanus performance and very rarely do I say this but I would have messed it up. I would have absolutely messed up The Matrix. At that point I wasnt smart enough as an actor to let the movie be. Whereas Keanu was smart enough to just let it be. Let the movie and the director tell the story, and don't try and perform every moment.I beg to differ Will. Unless by letting the movie be you mean Keanu offered as little as possible, then I perhaps agree in that regard.