One regrettable decision.
In the action-packed film Gemini Man, Will Smith’s character is confronted by a younger, cloned version himself. The premise has gotten fans thinking about what they would tell, or ask, their younger selves, and on the red carpet premiere Gemini Man, Fox Chicago reporter Jake Hamilton wanted to know what question the actor would have for 20-something-year-old Will Smith.
“Oooh,” Will said as he thought about his answer. “Probably Wild Wild West,” he said as the movie set he would go back and visit. “I’d go back to the Wild Wild West set] and I would say, ‘Asshole, why didn’t you do The Matrix?” He then laughed at his own joke, but for those that didn’t know, back in 1999, Will was approached by the Wachowskis, who only had one film to their name at the time, to star as Neo. The actor wasn’t too impressed with the Wachowski’s pitch, so he opted to film Wild Wild West over The Matrix.
“It turns out they are geniuses,” Will stated earlier this year when he talked about turning down the epic role. “Keanu was perfect, Laurence Fishburne was perfect,” he added. “So I probably would have messed The Matrix up. I would have ruined it, so I did y’all a favor.”