A closer look
Will Smith famously turned down the lead role of Neo in "The Matrix" because he completely misunderstood the Wachowskis' pitch and instead opted to star in the absolute critical catastrophe that was "Wild Wild West". At the height of his nineties superstardom, Smith was presented with a revolutionary cyberpunk script that would change cinema history, but he was too confused by the concept of bullet time cameras and simulated reality to see its potential. So, he passed the torch to Keanu Reeves, who practically built an entire second career on wearing tiny sunglasses and dodging slow-motion projectiles, while Smith went on to rap about a giant mechanical spider opposite Kevin Kline. To his credit, Smith later admitted that his ego was too big at the time and he probably would have ruined the movie by trying to make it a standard buddy-cop comedy, which is a rare moment of stunning self-awareness from an A-list celebrity who voluntarily chose to fight a steampunk villain over taking the red pill
