Will Smith as Neo?!?

[KneeCo]

Will Smith would suck as Neo, he was good at playing a caricature on the small screen but never learned the subtly required for film (yea I think 'Ali' is overrated, formulaic BS, thanks for asking). Keanu did a very good job in the first movie.

There's a lot of instances of this in hollywood history, a much better thread would have been "famous roles and the actors who turned them down".
e.g.:
- Karate Kid: Chuck Norris turned down the part of the Cobra Kai Sensei (SWIPE THE LEG!).
- Sean Connery turned down the role of Gandalf in LOTR.
- Johnny Depp was offered like every male leading role frm 1990 on, including Keanu's eventual roles in 'Speed' and 'The Matrix'.
- Jack Nicholson turned down the role of Michael Corleone in "The Godfather".

[NT!]

lol will smith lacks the 'subtly' but reeves did a good job. keanu has all the nuance of a nuclear [censored] bomb.

i hate will smith and he'd be playing completely against type with neo, but criticizing his chops while praising reeves is pretty LOL

[KneeCo]

I never said Reeves was good, I said he did a very good job in the first Matrix movie.

Reeves in Matrix > Smith in anything he's done (including Ali).

[NT!]

meh. i think reeves was pretty hammy at times in that movie, the role just conceals his deficits pretty well. i think smith was better in several of his big roles.

[Jay Riall]

Happyness >>>>> anything Keanu has ever done.

[Klompy]

Wait, johnny depp turned down the matrix?

[shaniac]

Hard to imagine Jack Nicholson as Michael Corleone.

[It's Brandt]

I once read that Val Kilmer was originally asked to play the part of Morpheus too.

[Los Feliz Slim]

[ QUOTE ]
it was his biggest regret as an actor

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, turning down a role that netted somebody else around $100 million might qualify as a regret.

I think if they cast Smith they don't go with Fishburne as Morpheus FWIW.

I think the movies would still have been an enormous success.

[CharlieDontSurf]

[ QUOTE ]
Happyness >>>>> anything Keanu has ever done.

[/ QUOTE ]

rofl