Actor and rap star Will Smith is already drawing Oscar buzz for his title role in the upcoming Muhammad Ali biopic, due to hit US screens on Christmas Day. However, it seems the Men In Black star is out to conquer much more than Hollywood.
“I never had any question that I was great,” says the 33-year-old actor. “My wife said I was brilliantly naïve, and I honestly believe that’s exactly what I am. I think I could be president of the US if I really wanted to… I know that making movies and music and entertainment is just a pit stop on the way to my true greatness.”
This is not the Independence Day heart-throb’s first hint at political aspirations. In 1999 he said he hoped to be the first Black president: “I’ve got a lot of other things I’ve got to do first. But I think I’ll get around to it in about ten years’ time.” Presumably those other things include being a movie star, for which he’s now earns $20 million per picture.
Will took on the role of the legendary boxer in Michael Mann’s Ali despite Tinseltown talk that perhaps he wasn’t up to the challenge. And while the film hasn’t opened yet, all signs point towards critical acclaim and box office glory.
“Ninety per cent of people you ask thought this was the worst career move I ever made,” the Fresh Prince said in an upcoming interview in Playboy. “To quote Ali, ‘They misjudged, they miscalculated, they got it all wrong’. This is the film of the decade, period.”
The Enemy Of The State star remained equally confident throughout the chat, saying he hopes to be “the most diverse actor in the history of Hollywood”.
“When I look back, I don’t want there to be one person who has a more colourful spectrum of films,” he says. “I want to be the standard. I want Tom Cruise to take movies that I turn down. I want you to have to ask Tom Cruise: ‘So, what does it feel like to have to wait until Will turns it down?’ I want you to have to ask Tom Hanks: ‘If Will turns down the next whatever, will you take it?’”
Will rose to fame in the late Eighties with hits such as Parents Just Don’t Understand and later parlayed his rap success into a TV show, the popular sitcom The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air. And while his acting career went from strength to strength, he never stopped making music. In 1999 he released Willenium which sold millions on both sides of the pond but drew criticism from other rappers for its feel-good, family friendly rhymes, a charge which doesn’t bother the father of three.
“Here’s my beef – I understand what you are saying and what you feel, but the world is bigger than what you are rapping about,” Will said in a challenge to the more hard-core rap circles. “Just rap about more topics in your world. You mean to tell me, all day long, all you do is smoke blunts, have sex and kill people? You never do anything else?”
Ali, written and directed by Oscar nominee Michael Mann of The Insider, opens across the US on December 25 before hitting UK screens early next year.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
