Aladdin Star Will Smith On Taking Time Out and What He Looks For Now In His Career

The last time Will Smith was involved in a high profile movie was really Netflix’s Bright in 2017. Bright was not met with a lot of enthusiasm from critics, but we have no idea how well it worked for Netflix themselves. Since 2017, Smith has appeared sparingly and well away from the spotlight, that is until this year when he returns as the Genie in the live-action remake of Aladdin.

LRM Online had the chance to attend the Aladdin press conference where Smith spoke about taking some time out and what he looks for now in his career.

Yeah. You know, I took a couple of years off. And I guess I had sort of hit a ceiling in my life. I had created the things that I could create in my career. I was getting to the end of my wisdom with leading my family and I kind of got to a point where I had a bit of just a collapse of my life and creations. So I took a couple of years off essentially to study. To study and journey spiritually. And Aladdin was really my first sort of coming back in and seeing if my heart was even still in this kind of performing. And what I discovered is everything starts with what am I saying to the world? How does this piece contribute to the human family? Can I go around the world with the ideas that the movie represents and can I teach and preach these ideas in good conscience? And Aladdin checks all of those boxes. I love the idea of Genie and one of the things that I related to in Genie is that the Genie has shackles. The Genie has these spectacular powers, but he’s shackled. Like he is a prisoner of his spiritual fate. And that is sort of how I felt with Will Smith. I was sort of shackled by Will Smith. And in these last couple of years, I’ve just started finding my freedom, where getting free of Will Smith and I’m getting more comfortable being me. So Aladdin was that first step back out. And in terms of Gemini Man, that was like, we are not going to talk about that yet. But just the ideas of that and there’s some deep concepts under that. And really it’s just about my beliefs. I’m going out into the world and I have a big voice and people look and people listen. I just want to make sure I’m saying things that improve and contribute to people’s life and growth and joy and evolution.

I’ve always felt Smith needed to choose better roles and for himself, and bar a few outliers, tends to pick ‘safe’ projects and I think he’s a better actor than that. I’m not the target audience for Disney’s live-action remakes, though my (almost) five-year-old daughter probably is. I dare say I’ll be dragged off to see Aladdin at some point, even though it’s not the kind of movie I’d watch myself.

RELATED: Aladdin Review: A Somewhat Updated World

Are you looking forward to seeing what Smith can pull off in Aladdin and what kind of movies would you like to see him tackle in the future? Share your thoughts in the usual spot below as always.

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SOURCE: Aladdin Press Conference

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