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Will Smith on why he turned down The Matrix: ‘I didn't understand it’

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Will Smith PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES/GALLO IMAGES)
Will Smith PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES/GALLO IMAGES)

Cape Town - It’s no secret that American actor and rapper, Will Smith, has taken social media by storm with his funny and goofy Instagram posts. Now the “Fresh Prince” has added “YouTuber” to his credentials.

Taking to one of his newly found online homes, the star shared that he turned down a role on the classic sci-fi action film, The Matrix.

Explaining why he turned down the role of Neo, Will said when the film’s producers approached him and pitched the film to him, he just didn’t understand it.

“I didn't get it when I read it. It's a hard movie to pitch. You know: 'Everybody lives inside a computer.' It was only when I saw it that I really got it,” he said in the video.

“They came in and made a pitch for The Matrix. As it turns out, they’re geniuses. But there’s a fine line in a pitch meeting between genius and what I experienced in the meeting,” he said.

And even though Will admits he wishes he gave the movie a shot, he can’t help but acknowledge the sterling job that was done by Keanu Reeves, who played Neo, and Laurence Fishburne, who played Morpheus.

Will added that the also came at a bad time, when he had just finished doing Men in Black, and was afraid of being the “alien movie guy” – he didn’t want to be typecast.

He concluded by humorously mentioning that he actually did the film’s fans “a favour” because

"If I had done it because I'm black, then Morpheus wouldn't have been black because they were looking at Val Kilmer. So, I probably would have messed The Matrix up."

WATCH THE FULL VIDEO HERE:

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