A former costar of Will Smith insinuated that the actor used his clout to minimize his presence in a film more than two decades back – impacting his career in the process.
Alan Tudyk, 54, portrayed the role of Sonny in the 2004 film iRobot, in which Smith, 56, starred as Del Spooner.
Tudyk said that he was unceremoniously dumped from promotional materials when his character began testing higher than Smith’s with trial audiences.
Tudyk, appearing on Toon’d In with Jimmy Cummings, explained the course of events that led to him being minimized in the promotional rollout of the motion picture.
‘They were doing test audiences with the movie,’ Tudyk said on the June 15 edition of the podcast, which has begun to go viral.
Tudyk continued: ‘They score the characters and I got word back, “Alan, you’re testing higher than Will Smith.”‘
A costar of Will Smith (pictured in 2023 in Saudi Arabia) insinuated the actor used his clout to minimize his presence in the 2004 film iRobot
Alan Tudyk, 54, portrayed the role of Sonny in the 2004 film iRobot, in which Smith, 56, starred as Del Spooner
‘And then I was gone – I was gone,’ Tudyk said. ‘There was no publicity and my name was not mentioned.’
Read More
Will Smith takes aim at Chris Rock with savage Oscar slap lyric in cringey freestyle
Tudyk said he was ‘so shocked’ and concerned moviegoers weren’t ‘going to know’ he played a key role in the motion picture.
Tudyk said in the interview that he had ‘put a lot into’ playing the role of Sonny, which was a CGI character he had to do extra work on amid the production process.
Tudyk said, ‘At the time, I was very upset.’
I, Robot arrived in theaters in the summer of 2004 and took in a total of $353,133,898 worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo.
It made $144,801,023 in domestic box office and $208,332,875 in international totals.
The movie was directed by Alex Proyas and also featured Bridget Moynahan, Bruce Greenwood, James Cromwell, Chi McBride and Shia LaBeouf.
This is not Smith’s first time publicly rubbing a costar the wrong way.
Tudyk said in the interview that he had ‘put a lot into’ playing the role of Sonny opposite Smith
Tudyk said test audiences scored ‘the characters and I got word back, “Alan, you’re testing higher than Will Smith”‘ – which led to him being minimized in publicity materials
In 1993, he had a well-publicized feud with his Fresh Prince of Bel-Air castmate Janet Hubert, which ultimately resulted from her dismissal from the show.
Read More
Will Smith gives bizarre take on how that Chris Rock Oscars slap impacted his career
Hubert did reunite with Smith and the cast during a 2020 reunion that aired on HBO Max. Smith in the special admitted that he ‘wasn’t sensitive’ and ‘wasn’t perceptive’ to struggles Hubert was dealing with, as she was pregnant at the time of their row.
‘Now that I’ve had three kids I’ve learned some things that I did not know at the time,’ he said, ‘and I would do things very differently – but I can see where I made the set very difficult for Janet.’
The Academy Award-winning King Richard star continues to try and rebuild his reputation more than three years after he slapped Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars.
Smith’s infamous slap of Chris Rock came on March 27, 2022, after the comedian made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
The joke was about her shaved head, saying, ‘Jada, I love you, G.I. Jane 2, can’t wait to see it!’ in a reference to the 1997 movie which featured Demi Moore with a shaved head. (Pinkett Smith has been diagnosed with alopecia, which causes hair loss.)
Smith then walked onstage and smacked Rock, returned to his seat and shouted at him twice, ‘Keep my wife’s name out of your f***ing mouth!’ to a stunned audience.
Smith is more than three years removed from his infamous incident at the 2022 Oscars, in which he slapped Chris Rock after he made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith
Later in the evening – in his acceptance speech after winning the Best Actor Oscar for his role as tennis patriarch Richard Williams in King Richard – Smith apologized to the Academy and other nominees, but made no reference to Rock.
Smith subsequently apologized on multiple occasions over the incident, and resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ahead of being issued a 10-year ban from the Oscars.
In an apology he issued in July of 2022 over the incident in an online clip, Smith said his spouse ‘had nothing to do with’ his attack on Rock.
‘I made a choice on my own from my own experiences, from my history with Chris,’ he said. ‘I want to say sorry to my kids and my family for the heat that I’ve brought on all of us.’
He added: ‘I’ve reached out to Chris and the message that came back is that he’s not ready to talk, and when he is he will reach out. So I will say to you, Chris, I apologize to you. My behavior was unacceptable, and I’m here whenever you’re ready to talk.’