Cinematical

Like you, I really like Will Smith.

However, I've despised most of his movies. Hated. They're awful and unwatchable. Six Degrees of Separation is the only Will Smith movie I'd willingly watch again. By and large his movies are some of the worst I've ever seen. They tend to be dimwitted and insulting. Independance Day? Dimwitted and insulting. Wild Wild West? Pursuit of Happyness? Shark Tale? Bagger Vance? All dimwitted and insulting.

But Will Smith manages to be extremely likeable amidst all this horrific garbage.

Now imagine if he actually took a good script...

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Oh, to answer the question? No, Will Smith could not be a villian. Not a traditional one, at least. Will Smith rides on charisma in a way few other actors right now do. You like Will Smith because he's so clearly a good guy. Comparisons to Denzel do not work, as you respected Denzel for being intelligent but never really sat there thinking how awesome an individual he must be and how much fun it must be to be around him.

Your point with Denzel is also muddied from the start. Denzel wasn't known for good guys from the beginning, he was known for an antagonist that reforms in Glory. Denzel always had darkness in his characters. Will has never had a flash of it.


Will Smith's popularity comes from him always looking like a kid during his first five minutes in Disney World. Take that away and I thnk you do some damage. You're taking away the single best thing about Will Smith. Which isn't to say he likely isn't a good actor, but it's overshadowed by that massive charisma. Charisma that, honestly, maybe only George Clooney also has, but I think Will Smith manages to have more.

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I think, if he were to do it, he'd have to do it seriously. Cut everything out.

If he were still goofy, grinning Will Smith playing the villain in a comedy I think I'd have some issues.

But if he were the villain in a movie with more gravity, along the lines of the new Bond movies, where he was stripping everything you know that is Will Smith away and doing a complete reinvention, I think I could buy that.

Well, stripping everything away except for those ears, haha. Sadly, those ears just make him that much more likeable.

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I used to wonder the same thing about Harrison Ford. I always wanted him to play a villain. When he finally did in "What Lies Beneath," I think the aloof part of Harrison's personality pulled off that role for me.

The greatest good guy to bad guy transition has to be Henry Fonda in "Once Upon A Time in the West." Wow, what a role!

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I would like to see it as well and I think it can be done, if everything about it is right...

I would also like to see him win as the villain, i like when the bad guys win every know and then makes for a better movie

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Will Smith has always been a good actor IMO, but yes he sure stars in some not so great films. (although I admit I enjoyed Wild Wild West)

I would love to see him as a bad guy. To me, nothing can prove someone is a great actor more than being a great bad guy.

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This topic once came up with my family and I and we were thinking the same thing because Will Smith always plays this nice guy role and he's big on being a role model for younger people, the question is would he ever take on the role of the villain, No, I would like to see him play a villain, but I don't see him doing it anytime soon. Even with Hancock he's playing this drunk, a-hole type of loser but he's still the good guy and in the end you're still rooting for him. I could easily see Will playing a corporate type of bad guy, that if you pissed him off, he would fire you on the spot. That's the type of villain I would like to see him play, or possibly a corrupt politician or something, anything, as long as he's a bad bad guy.

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I would love to see Will Smith as a bad guy. I think he can definitely pull it off.

But doesn't it seem like it isn't "PC" these days to put a black guy as a villain? It seems like all the villains these days are white so that no feathers will be ruffled.

Personally, I think bad guys should come in all colors, shapes, sizes, genders, etc- I just want some decent acting and a good story. And maybe some explosions. ;)

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i dont think he could do it. it would have to be like the perfect role for him and thats not easy to find. is he the top crime boss? do u make it a twist where u find out he was the bad guy the whole time a halle berry in perfect stranger or that black guy that played spawn in the movie with dmx i think its exit wounds (im black and i dont even know these things lol).


I think it really has to be a perfect role for him to pull it off otherwise it will flop. I think a perfect film and i know some of u will not agree with me. But a batman film may be perfect for him but i dont know of any black bad guys. I think batman has the dark edge in the film where will could go in and go up against batman and it could be interesting. but theyd have to find a villain for him to play so i dont know.

id love to see him go all the way to the other side as a serial killer in a movie.

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I'd like to see him do it, but it would HAVE to be the right part in the right film, and he'd have to play it completely straight down the line evil, no 50/50. Like what was said above, it would have to be something like a Bond villain or superhero villain to pull it off. I don't think it would work as a black hearted pure evil character like a Gary Oldman bad guy.

As for him being a kids role model, sometimes the best way to show whats right is to show how bad it is to do whats wrong. And apart from that, the kids that were his fanbase in the Prince of Bel Air and music days would pretty much have grown up by now, its time to move on and do something less 'for the kids'.

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While everyone is listing reasons above why they think Will Smith wouldn't be a good evil villain, I think all those reasons are reasons why he'd be a great villain. If the movie started with him killing someone right off the bat... Also, his charisma would be perfect for a villain. If you look at most major "Evil people" throughout history they have been very charismatic. Too often villains in films come off as one-dimensional and stiff. Smith would be able to provide a stellar performance, maybe not as a corrupt cop like Denzel Washington, but something like Daniel Day-Lewis' role in Gangs of New York or Christian Bale's role in American Psycho. Or a super villain. That'd still be typecasting a little, but it might be worth it.

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Erik, I kind of agree with you there, but probably totally opposite to you in a way.

It is not that I am particularly a fan Will Smith it is more that there is nothing at all to make me dislike him. The guy turns up on set, works hard for a few months, makes a bucket full of money for everybody concerned and never seems to put a foot wrong. Amazing really.

Like many have already said I cannot think of too many of his movies I really like, but plenty of other people do.

One thing he has not done too much of that other A list's manage to do from time to time is working for scale on a small budget indie flick. The money he makes he really should at least try to make a small movie every couple of years, I see it as the Hollywood version of Pro bono, giving back to the industry that made him type of thing.

It is there that he could get away with trying some new directions, I think a creepy bad guy would be perfect for him, think of some of the roles that Robin Williams has taken on in recent times (one hour photo, insomnia) and that is where I can see Will Smith heading if he dared.

The guy can act, I wish he would try it sometime!! ;-)

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I agree with this. There may be a little baggage with this (he's always the hero; will people accept this change-of-pace?), but he ought to stretch.

Akbar - While it's not a great movie, there are a number of things I like about "Wild Wild West".

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I don't think its a conincidence that I thought the same thing at the end of "I am Legend". Honestly, I don't think his ego, will allow him to take on a role where he isn't the badass. He may be a flawed villan in his movies, but it sometimes seems like Smith may change the direction of any given film to match the expectations of his image. Even if he does a bad guy, it probably won't be a "Training Day" kind of experience. It'll probably end up being more of a bad guy finds his way.

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I love Will Smith, and I love most of his movies, most -I'm not so crazy about "Ali"-, and yes, I often wonder whether he will ever play a villain.

This is one of the reasons I'm so excited to see "Hancock", because he plays a not so nice guy. But, I was able to read the original script, and they totally downed the character for this version.

Yes, for a moment you can think it wouldn't be believeable his play as a villain, but I think it would actually would. He is a good actor, and he should be able to pull out that kind of part. In "I am Legend", as much as I disliked the movie, he was actually good at not being the hero -until the cop out ending, that is-

The thing is, it would have to be a really good script, and he should totally into it. And he probably would have to do it right now, otherwise he wouldn't be able to get out of the typecasting. For example, I believe Robin Williams and Harrison Ford were believeable villians when they had to, the problem? The movies they were weren't that good and they were in a point of their career where it was too late. Not that I'm saying they shouldn't try again, by all means they should, it just would be harder.

And yes, the comparision with Denzel Washington doesn't really have a point, because they couldn't have more opposite works.

I think Will Smith could be a really good villain, but he would have to be very careful with the project in which he would do it, and be really into it.

And people can handle with him getting killed at the end. Remember "I am Legend", and next december he'll play a suicidal guy.

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I think Smith should play a baddie opposite Daniel Craig's James Bond.

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Well, we haven't seen it yet, but I don't think Heath Ledger has ever played a villain. And judging by what I have seen in the trailers, he is going to be one heck of a Joker.

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