Will Smith Once Turned Down Playing Marvin Gaye Because He Doubted He Was Good Enough
Will Smith is no stranger to biopics with films like Pursuit of Happyness and Ali under his belt. At one point, Smith was also tapped to play another iconic figure in Marven Gaye. But it was the one role Smith might not have thought he had the ability to pull off.
How many biopics has Will Smith done?
Will Smith may be known for being a box-office megastar. But he’s also starred in his fair share of biopics. According to IMDb, Smith has featured in 5 biopics so far. In addition to projects like The Pursuit of Happyness, Smith has also portrayed doctor Bennet Omalu in the 2015 movie Concussion. Most recently, he won an Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal in King Richard. There, he played the real-life father of tennis icons Venus and Serena Williams.
The recent slave drama Emancipation directed by Antoine Fuqua was also very loosely based on real-life slaves Peter and Gordon. On The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Smith quipped that he considered playing former president Barack Obama in a biopic. He’d even talked to Obama himself about the possibility, with which Obama gave Smith his blessing.
“Me and B was hollering about it the other day,” Smith joked. “He said the one thing is for sure; I have the ears to play him.”
Will Smith doubted his ability to play Marvin Gaye in a biopic
Marvin Gaye was another icon that Smith considered portraying on the big screen. A Marvin Gaye biopic had been trying to make it to the big screen for years with various actors and filmmakers attached. Director Cameron Crowe was once tapped to finally make the project a reality, with Smith heavily courted for the role. But the process proved frustrating for Crowe, who couldn’t get Smith on board.
“We had many meetings where we talked about it,” Crowe once said according to The Hollywood Reporter. “And at the end, he couldn’t say yes.”
Crowe went on to assert that Smith might have found Gaye’s shoes a bit too big for him to fill. At least back then.
“It’s a tough thing to play Marvin Gaye. He’s a towering figure….Who would want to be the guy who played Marvin and didn’t nail it? Will isn’t wrong,” Crowe added. “The guy who plays it should be a guy who tears into it and knows it’s the right thing, and I don’t think he ever came around the corner on it.”
Will Smith once worked with Marvin Gaye’s daughter in a biopic
Although Smith didn’t portray Marvin Gaye, Smith did ironically work with the late singer’s daughter in his first biopic. Nona Gaye played Belinda Ali, boxer Muhammad Ali’s former wife in Smith’s titular film Ali. During the experience, Nona Gaye had nothing but kind words and high opinions of Smith.
“He made it really easy. And there was Jamie and Jeffrey -it was a bunch of really great, fun loving people. It was really hard to stay introverted and scared when I was surrounded by all this wonderful, positive energy,” Nona once recalled in an interview with Hollywood.
