Will Smith’s career is full of films that have become part of modern popular culture, and one of them was ‘Independence Day’, but if today is a must in his filmography, at first he was on the verge of not be part of the cast of the film, and all because FOX he did not want “a black actor to affect international revenue.”
Now the face of Will Smith He is recognized as one of the most popular in Hollywood, as he has appeared in films such as ‘Men in Black’, ‘Bad Boys’ or ‘In search of happiness’, but in the beginning he was also loved by the character for the series of Nickelodeon, ‘The Prince of Rap’. Now he is a celebrity that everyone is fond of.
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Due to the twenty-fifth anniversary of the ‘Independence Day’, The Hollywood Reporter shared an interview with Roland Emerich and Dean Devlin, the director and producer, respectively, of the science fiction film. In the article, the two mention that they battled Fox in order to get Will Smith to have a stake.
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The director comments: “It was quite clear that [los protagonistas] it had to be Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum. That was the combo we thought of. But the studio said, ‘No, we don’t like Will Smith. It is not approved and it does not work internationally. ‘ They were the excuses that FOX gave the producers at the time for not accepting Smith, despite the fact that in that year the actor was already known worldwide.
Fox didn’t want a black actor like Will Smith in his film
Along the same lines, producer Devlin commented: “They said, ‘If you cast a black man for this role, you’re going to destroy the foreign box office.’ Our argument was: ‘Well, the movie is about aliens. He will do well abroad. ‘ It was a great war. Roland really stood up for him [a Smith] and we finally won that war. “
The collection of ‘Independence Day’ reached $ 817 million worldwide today, exceeding the budget for the film by ten times. And after seeing the success, Fox thanked the director for not giving in to Will Smith. Even Emmerich himself said that “Universal people are calling me every day, so give me these two actors or I will move there.”
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