Not Leonardo DiCaprio, this actor was Christopher Nolan's first choice for Inception but he didn't understand the film, now calls it 'career blunder'

Will Smith took everyone by surprise by sharing that he turned down the lead role of filmmaker Christopher Nolan‘s Inception because he didn’t "understand the plot." Smith shared the anecdote during a recent interview with radio station Kiss Xtra. Leonardo DiCaprio ended up headlining the cerebral action thriller instead. Nolan’s blockbuster opened in theaters and went on to gross $839 million at the worldwide box office.

Smith said, "I don’t think I’ve ever said it publicly but I am going to say it because we are opening up to one another. Chris Nolan brought me Inception first and I didn’t get it. I’ve never said that out loud. Now that I think about it, it’s those movies that go into those alternate realities...they don’t pitch well. But I am hurt by those, too."

While Smith says rejecting Inception was "a career blunder", it wasn’t as painful in retrospect as his decision to turn down Neo in The Matrix. The part went to Keanu Reeves, which gave him an iconic action franchise. Smith said during the radio interview, "It hurts too bad to talk about."

Smith posted a YouTube video in 2019 explaining why he turned down The Matrix. The main reason was because he didn’t connect to the Wachowski siblings’ pitch, which he said was more about their intended directing style and not about the actual story. Smith re-told the pitch as follows, "We’re thinking like...imagine you’re in a fight. You, like, jump. Imagine if you could stop jumping in the middle of the jump. But then, people could see around you 360 degrees while you stop jumping. We’re going to invent these cameras and then people can see the whole jump when you stop in the middle of the jump."

Then there was Django Unchained, which Quentin Tarantino offered to Smith before ultimately going with Jamie Foxx in the title role. Leonardo DiCaprio played villain in the 2012 Western film, that also won two Academy Awards. (With inputs from IANS)

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