Over 30 years into his career, Will Smith remains a major movie star. He’s led some of the most iconic films of the century, turning loose concepts into franchises on the sheer strength of his star power. That said, he doesn’t always make the best choices.
For every great blockbuster in Smith’s oeuvre, there’s a project he turned down for one regrettable reason or another. Most notably, he declined the leading role in The Matrix and passed on Django Unchained. Each misstep lives on as a “painful” reminder of what could have been, Smith revealed in an interview with Kiss Xtra. But the actor’s been hiding an even more painful rebuff for 15 years: Smith claims he very nearly starred in Christopher Nolan’s Inception, but didn’t understand the director’s vision.
