4. Will Smith
Unquestionably one of the most likeable and popular actors working today, Will Smith has made a career off of his thoroughly charming, wise-cracking personality and hilarious voices, while also being able to live up to the physical demands of action films; he is, as some might say, the total package. He needs to play a villain, but not with the expected Will Smith swagger; strip away the charm, the arrogance and the cockiness, and Smith can play a callous, mean bastard. Imagine Smith in the role of a serial killer, or even a rapist; take his
Seven Pounds character but take away the organ donor element, and suffuse that darkness with something even more unsavoury; Smith has proven he has the capacity to do this - and he is a much better actor than most give him credit for - but it is a case of channelling it in the right way. Alternatively, what about placing him as a gangster, or perhaps the head of a crime syndicate? In Michael Mann's hugely underrated
Ali, Smith demonstrated the peak of his physical intensity, and to funnel that into something villainous could be quite marvellous indeed. Or proving the sheer number of possibilities he has, what if he played a role similar to the villainous ones Denzel Washington has assumed as of late; could Smith pull off a
Training Day-esque character? I think so.