There was a movie in which Will Smith 's appearance took everyone by surprise, including the cast themselves, who had no idea that the Independence Day or Bad Boys actor worked alongside them. It happened in 2014, when the director and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman , who had a close relationship with Smith thanks to their collaborations on I, Robot or I Am Legend , directed the romantic drama A Winter's Tale and, due to budgetary and cache reasons, could not reveal to absolutely no one that he decided to unofficially count on the Hollywood actor to whom he turned almost desperately to alleviate a problem in the film.
Goldsman himself told it in several promotional interviews with media such as Yahoo or Variety , where he clarified that putting this film forward, for which he was given a very limited budget, was not an easy task . If we remember, A Winter's Tale adapts the famous novel of the same title by Mark Helprin, a project that was floating around Hollywood for years and that no director dared to do. Its story, a proposal of fantasy and romance between two timelines of the 19th century and the present, was described as unfilmable by filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, however, Akiva Goldsman, who until then had never directed a film, launched into the adventure.
As media outlets like Vulture reported , doubts surrounding A Winter's Tale were in the air until the last moment. The production company, Warner Bros, was also not sure that this story could work on screen, so the director had no choice but to ask favors from some of his friends in the industry and accept a budget reduction of around 20 million. of dollars . In 2012, there was already talk of a rumor that Smith would be one of these actors who would have agreed to help Goldsman, however, when the cast was announced, only the names of Colin Farrell , Jessica Brown Findlay , Russell Crowe , Jennifer Connelly or William Hurt .
"This movie is about 20 years of favors," Goldsman told Variety while promoting A Winter's Tale . “The truth is that we didn't have a very big budget, so I asked everyone I had worked with if they would consider doing it. After he wrote I, Robot and I Am Legend for Will Smith, which became two of the biggest hits of his career, the actor agreed to help his friend , although yes, due to his high cachet, the only condition that The idea was that his participation be kept secret, that it simply be seen as a surprise cameo that no one should find out about until the film's premiere.
Goldsman, who simply wanted powerful and charismatic faces that would help the audience connect with the film, accepted this condition and took it very seriously, so much so that he did not talk about the signing of Will Smith - whom he gave a small character called “ judge” – nor the actors of the film and did not allow them to coincide on the set. "I wanted the most charming man in the world to play the Devil," he added. "And he is the most charming man in the world."
Only Russell Crowe saw him on set
In another chat with Yahoo! , which also featured Colin Farrell and Jessica Brown Findlay, he explained that the only actor who knew of Smith's presence on the set of A Winter's Tale was Russell Crowe, with whom he had to share a couple of sequences . The rest didn't find out until they saw the finished film, which surprised and even bothered them. "I didn't get to meet him, which bothered me a lot," Findlay admitted. "I wanted to sing the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air song," she joked while Farrell sang the theme of this legendary television series.
Sadly, this strategy with Will Smith didn't help A Winter's Tale at all . This romantic story through fantasy and time received terrible reviews and crashed at the box office. On Rotten Tomatoes, its percentage of positive reviews only amounted to 13% and at the box office it barely grossed 30 million dollars against a budget of 60. In fact, the surprise appearance of the actor from Man in Black or Public Enemy did not even work, since many The media, as publications such as Complex reflect , described his scenes as “bizarre.” In the end, it became clear that Akiva Goldsman's ambition was excessive and that Hollywood's doubts with this project were on the right track.
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