Big Willy Style: A Profile of Will Smith

Following the release of Seven Pounds a fortnight or so ago (see Ray's full review here), it seems an appropriate time to look into the career of the man who is generally held as the Golden Boy of Hollywood. I present to you the first in my new Actors in Profile segment: I'm not concerned about what they put their dicks in, or who they're wearing, this is purely about the careers of the mighty and the much-loved from a purely filmic side. Will Smith

Highest Grossing Film: Independence Day (£817m) Debut Movie: Where The Day Takes You (1992) Highest Fee: £28m (I,Robot) Clean as cut glass rapper turned sitcom star turned Hollywood megastar is hardly a familiar model for career progression in the most fickle of industries, but Will Smith has turned his adaptability and all-round showmanship into a fine art. Gone are ludicrous outfits and pronounced overacting of the Fresh Prince years, replaced with the familiar dependableness that goes hand in hand with the particular brand of affection associated with the Golden Boy tag. Considering Smith's later career choices, his role in Where the Day Takes You could be torn from the pages of another actor entirely- the film is as dark as Smith has been associated with: the tale of underage drug-use and street living makes the all-too-infrequent tantalising dark patches of Hancock and I Am Legend look like a day in the park. A pity then that the film pretty much fails overall- none of the performances, besides Smith's wheelchair bound street grifter Manny (and it is a minor role), resonate with any kind of power, and come off like stereotype-strewn caricatures of teenage punks. To reconcile this role with much that Smith has achieved since, and will no doubt to go on to achieve is a difficult prospect entirely, but there are flashes of talent in amongst the moments of cocksure attitude, and there is enough of a radical departure from his work on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air to suggest the range that has become a familiar part of Smith's career. Continuing in a similar vein to his bravado-heavy character on The Fresh Prince..., Smith's early career path, with stops at Independence Day, Bad Boys and Men In Black, looked to be purposefully heavy on the attitude and the swagger, until Ali took the suggested acting chops of Enemy of the State and firmly dropped Smith onto the heavy-weight list. For him to then go back and make two fairly sub-standard sequels could well have been a step backwards, were it not for the power of his role in the criminally underrated I, Robot. That Hollywood accepted both Men In Black II and Bad Boys 2 without Smith's star fading is an achievement indeed, considering the enduring memories of two rats in flagrante, and that cadaver-strewn chase scene in Bad Boys 2, and the more than faint whiff of ham aboutMen In Black II. A welcome return to form with Shark Tale was inevitably blighted by that production's unfavourable critic comparison with the mighty Pixar's Finding Nemo, just as Woody Allen's neurotic take on the world of insects- Antz- was inevitably doomed to pale alongside A Bug's Life. But it was the period in and following the release of Hitch that the tide overwhelmingly turned in Smith's favour, with the outstanding and hugely successful back to back releases of The Pursuit of Happyness, I Am Legend, Hancock and Seven Pounds. More than any other actor working today, Will Smith is able to effortlessly segues from deep and earnest pathos (Seven Pounds) into near-slap-stick physical comedy (Hitch), and crucially never threatens to be type-cast by either ability. In Hitch, he manages to capture the kind of everyman leading man qualities that marked so much of the early career of Tom Hanks, but he is still infinitely believable as less likeable (Hancock) or traumatised and inherently flawed characters (I Am Legend, Seven Pounds). There is something about his face- easily good-looking without being dazzling or unapproachable- that makes for enticing viewing when he plays broken characters- the most memorable aspects of The Pursuit of Happyness and Seven Pounds are those moments when he is wrecked by self-doubt or unimaginable grief, and even despite the accusations of audience manipulation and the somewhat derogatory implications of the phrase, both performances deserve to have been called Oscar-baiting. To see Smith's Chris Gardner weeping on the floor of a grim public toilet, cradling his son in his arms, or his Ben Thomas visibly wrestle with the ghosts of his grief is all the more affecting because of Smith's unexpected origins in TV sitcom, playing a character who was as difficult to empathise with as Peter Griffin or Homer Simpson are today. For such humble and strange origins for a Hollywood major player, Smith has admirably displayed his range and diversity in a career defined by sustained financial and critical success. Because I'm one of those annoying listmaniacs, what better a place to suggest Smith's five defining movie scenes... Six Degrees of Separation- "I was wondering if I could fuck you" Smith announces his intention to deflower Heather Graham's boyfriend in his break-out performance. Noone was thinking Fresh Prince after this shocking and excellent performance. 2. Independence Day- "I could have been at a barbeque!" Not for any acting merit- it's simply the earliest suggestion that Smith was going to go on and be a star in the kind of summer blockbuster gigs that one-liners were simply made for. 3. The Pursuit of Happyness- The subway bathroom scene The best example of Smith's ability to capture raw human emotion committed to film- his emotional degeneration is compelling and utterly believable. It might be a little heavily sugared, but why should we castigate a movie for reverting to generic convention (this is essentially cinematic Mis-Lit) and doing it so well? 4. I Am Legend- "Damn It, Fred!" Another degeneration scene, but one that depicts Smith's steadily eroding mental condition- his power has always been an inherent ability to make his audience feel for him. Even when he's shooting a mannequin he thinks is alive. 5. Seven Pounds- A phone-call to Ezra Turner Probably the iconic scene of the movie, because of Smith's malevolence when he learns that Woody Harrelson's telesales operator is blind, and also because of Harrelson's wonderfully affecting reaction to it. If ever it were needed, surely the proof that Smith could feasibly play the villain if the picture called for it, and the one gleaming hint of hope that the Old Boy remake isnt as horrifically miscast as first appeared. So, what next for the man who can do no wrong in Hollywood's rose-tinted eyes? The I Am Legend Prequel is a difficult pill to swallow personally, as I simply do not think it is necessary, and the Hollywood remake of Old Boy is a downright sin against the legacy of the original. How on Earth the Hollywood masses are expected to accept Smith in that role when Hancock was apparently drastically toned down in order not to compromise his squeaky clean image is beyond me. But one thing is for certain, as long as Willard Smith keeps attaching himself to such viewer-friendly fare as Seven Pounds, he is bound to continue raking in the adoration of the movie-going many, no matter what the critical reception. Seven Pounds is available to buy on Blu-Ray from Amazon U.S. ($23.99) and Amazon U.K. (£16.98)