Things started to come into focus for Will Smith when After Earth bombed.
Once the biggest movie star in the world, the $130 million sci-fi spectacle opened in June 2013 to a lousy $27.5m and would only make up less than half of its production budget, domestically, by the end of its run. For a man who once defined himself by his box office star power, the blow was crushing.
“From the time I was in my early 20s, I had this goal that I wanted to be the biggest movie star in the world,” said Smith in an interview.
“And I set out to conquer,” he said.
For a while it worked. Smith has had four movies that have grossed more than $200m domestically, and 13 that have grossed in excess of $100m. Then After Earth happened and everything toppled.
“After the failure of After Earth, a thing got broken in my mind,” he had explained at a press conference for his new film Focus.
“I was like, ‘oh wow, I’m still alive. I actually am still me even though the movie didn’t open at No 1. Wait, I can still get hired on another movie?’ All of those things collapsed in my mind. I realised I still was a good person. It’s a huge emotional shift for me,” said Smith, who has since appeared in smaller roles in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues and Winter’s Tale.
“(Daughter) Willow in particular has helped me make a shift from winning and conquering to loving and connecting as a primary purpose for everything. It’s a huge lesson for me to quiet the warrior in me.”
It’s fitting that Smith’s first outing in this new stage is called Focus, a sleek, intimate film about a smooth, seasoned conman and his alluring and much younger protege, played by Australian actress, Margot Robbie.
Smith and Robbie are meeting in the middle, in film and in life. Smith, in a self-defined new phase, and Robbie right as she’s about to break out into the mainstream.
The Wolf of Wall Street, where Robbie caught the attention of a wider audience playing the wife of Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, hadn’t even come out when she was cast in Focus. As she remembers it, Focus wrapped at 6am and she was attending the Wolf premiere that night.
“We couldn’t be more opposite,” said Smith of his co-star, seated next to her.
“I wasn’t expecting to get along with him as well as we did. We didn’t have anything in common. He’s an ex-rapper. I’m from Australia,” said Robbie. “I, just like everyone, assumed he was really fun and funny. And he is. I wasn’t expecting him to be so intellectual and emotional and deep.”
Smith laughed.
“Ooooh. Intellectual, emotional and deep?” he said. “That should be your headline.”
The two have a smouldering chemistry in the film and a playful way around each other off screen, often finishing each other’s sentences when they’re not making the other keel over with laughter. They bonded over endless hours of conversation, chess, eating and going out with the cast and crew in the various shooting locations from New Orleans to Buenos Aires.
Smith helps to set the tone: “For me, it’s really important to maintain a positive energy, especially when it’s a comedy.”
“Will walks onto set with a boom box on his shoulder and starts rapping and it’s like 5am and he’s jumping up and down then you’re just buzzing for the rest of the day,” she said.
Robbie and Smith aren’t done with each other yet, either. They’ll both be appearing in the comic book film Suicide Squad, which is currently in pre-production.
Sapa-AP