As one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars looks poised to win his first Academy Award, the 1993 movie tells us a lot about the persona Smith has built.
Consider for a moment : you ’re an up - and - coming television actor at the helm of a wildly successful sitcom . A move to the silver screen would seem like the inevitable next step , but your Hollywood bona fides are far from established . You anxiously look the call for your agent to tell you that you ’ve made it , thebig onehas come through , you ’re a multi - millionaire . All of your debt are clear . You ’re a leading man .
When James Lassiter , Will Smith ’s longtime coach and childhood friend , called him with the offer of a major studio batch involve a $ 10 million declaration , he advised Smith to wrench it down . “ It ’s the haywire tone , ” Lassiter said , as Smith — then a few season deep intoThe Fresh Prince of Bel - Air — details in his recent autobiography . “ If you sincerely want to be the bighearted movie star in the world , do not take this motion-picture show . ” It was mobster comedy8 Heads in a Duffel Bag , made in 1997 on a lowly budget with David Spade in Smith ’s spot . Duffel Bagwas no asterisk - maker .
Now , Smith is plain acknowledge as one of the big lead on the planet . His name is synonymous with superstardom , paralleled only by the Tom Cruises , Angelina Jolies , and Denzel Washingtons of the mankind . At the box spot , his movies have puff more than $ 6 billion in global receipts ; honor bodies the world over have make out his unshakable charisma and untypical versatility , with an upcomingOscar winbroadly divined forKing Richard . But this was not always the case .
Illustration by Maitane Romagosa for Thrillist.
Lassiter call Smith , by the latter ’s recollection , a month later . “ People are not taking you in earnest yet as an actor , ” he tell . “ We got ta go against stereotypic function . We call for to make peopleforgetthey’re watch a rapper . ” There was a new offer on the table , and Lassiter was , to say the least , stir : an indie movie pack with incandescent talent , wherein Smith would be nestled among Donald Sutherland , Stockard Channing , and Ian McKellen . He tookSix Degrees of Separationfor $ 300,000 .
Smith had tout a smattering of roles anterior toSix Degrees . In 1993’sMade in America , he played very much to his established saucy , comedic type , orbiting the leads ( Whoopi Goldberg and Ted Danson ) and provide humourous asides . Marc Rocco ’s rarely - pick up 1992 societal dramaWhere the Day Takes You , a history of L.A. vagrant in the vein of early Gus Van Sant , come in him as a paraplegic drifter . It offered an early showcase of his emotional verisimilitude , and the New York Times described it as “ light - years away from sitcom humor”—but , contrary to what you might look , it wasMade in Americathat led toSix Degrees .
“ I look at a number of masses , ” Fred Schepisi , the director ofSix degree , tell over Zoom . “ Originally , MGM were financing the film whole , and then they decided they could only spring for half of it . ” In his search for backing , Schepisi turn to producer Arnon Milchan at New Regency , who had just completedMade in Americaand found earlier success withThe War of the RosesandPretty Woman . Smith came at Milchan ’s testimonial .
‘King Richard’|Warner Bros.
“ I did n’t just take it , " Schepisi call back . " I kind of said , ‘ Let me speak to him . Let ’s give him the same as everybody else . ’ But Will come along , and he came almost as his character — for certain very enthusiastic . And I thought , ' Yeah , okay , it seems like a damn good melodic theme . ' I say , ‘ You know , you ’re gon na have to change the direction you utter . You ’re gon na work with a voice coach in the leading - up to the film , and also you ’ll work with an acting coach . ’ What we decided to do was he ’d get and see me once a workweek , and we ’d catch up on where he was at . ”
Ellen Chenoweth , theSix Degreescasting director , had a list of “ around 20 guys ” they had previously considered for the part : “ Singers , rappers , doer ; some citizenry , like Will , were all of those thing . But we settled on him as the most interesting choice . ” She stops curt of advert any specific alternatives—“I do n’t really like doing that , ” she say — but observe it was a “ jump of religious belief ” for Schepisi to choose Smith . “ I have to say , he was not show as a dramatic actor , ” she says . “ I think it was the charisma , the good luck charm , the smiling ; he was a really handsome cat . ”
The molding was certainly subversive . Smith ’s quality , Paul , is a ostensibly well - to - do young man who , under the auspices of being a booster of their children at Harvard — as well as the son of Sidney Poitier — tea cosy his way into the good free grace of a bourgeois New York span , played by Channing and Sutherland . He ’s soon break to be agay hustlerwho has pursue the same gambit with many of Manhattan ’s esteemed intelligentsia . The function , like Paul ’s own carrying out , demand electric wit , spectacular magnetics , and a devious air of coercion .
‘Six Degrees of Separation’|MGM
On the other side of the Atlantic , Channing was performing in the original microscope stage version ofSix Degreeson the West End , paired Adrian Lester ’s Paul . “ I was sort of preoccupied , ” Channing recalls by telephone . “ It was a very interesting routine assay to get this movie on . I was fundamentally hired , and all of that . And they said , ‘ We ’ve found the guy who ’s going to wreak the untried man , ’ and I said , ‘ Oh , great . ’ They said to me he ’d been a singer , he was famous , had a big television serial , blahdy - claptrap . ” Schepisi , Lassiter , and an immensely keen Smith fly to London .
“ My military upbringing kicked into cogwheel — I had my mission : I needed tosmashthis role , ” Smith reflects in his book . They went to see the show in its concluding workweek on the West End . “ We last out afterwards , ” Channing says . “ We straightaway liked each other . It ’s really jolly simple , you know . I do n’t love what that ’s about , but we had a lovely clip . I remember walking across Leicester Square together , going to dinner party , and it was all very easygoing . ”
In his initial calendar month of preparation , Smith “ would pass four or five days at a stretch without breaking character , ” he recalls — and yet that is n’t something Schepisi ever notice . “ Certainly , obviously , he was getting as profoundly as possible into the part , ” Schepisi say . “ But I do n’t conceive I was really aware that he was doing the whole Method matter . ”
Smith was ab initio bemuse by his peers ’ outgrowth . “ The other character were asking a whole heap of questions about the text — this , that , and the other , ” Schepisi remembers . “ Will looked at them and tell , ‘ God , you cat ask a lot of bare enquiry . ’ Donald Sutherland look at him and allege , ‘ That ’s how we learn the character . ’ So he got right into that . They all feed off Will ’s exuberance , and he fed off their experience . ” When Smith ’s own line of questioning intensified , Schepisi tap the support of writer John Guare , who ’d receive a Pulitzer nominating address forSix Degrees . “ I could see Will had a lot of talent , but in act terms , it was pretty raw , ” Schepisi says .
Chenoweth recalls a alike level of dedication . “ When I fulfil him during our dry run , I was struck by — he was quite serious and fix , and not that fictitious character at all , " she says . " So it was veridical acting . I do n’t cognize that we all knew how great he could be . We could secernate from the TV show that he was fun , and that he was wizard , but it certainly did n’t show the glum side of this persona . That ’s where Fred had to have a little chip of a gamble . ”
ButSix Degreesdidn’t just subvert Smith ’s well - trodden amusing type . For a young bleak man to play gay in the early ‘ 90s , a societal moment dominated by anti - queer prejudice and AIDS hysteria , was actively risky . Indeed , many in public unbent doer still wo n’t take queer parts . “ He understand the jeopardy , ” Schepisi says . “ But I think he empathise more what a standout part it was . ” He remark , however , that “ some of his colleague ” advised him against buss a man on - screen . “ For many reasons , not just for career reason . But it ’s not a big deal — we simulated it . You would n’t know if he did or he did n’t . ”
Smith received rave follow-up for his turn inSix Degrees , a crucial first step in his journey from telly ducky to Hollywood leading man . The pic was n’t a commercial knockout — it clawed back just over a third of its modest $ 15 million budget — but it was hugely popular with critics , earning Channing her first and ( thus far ) only Oscar nominating speech . Most significantly , it lay groundwork for the next half - decade , which , as story now shows , would come to cement Smith ’s life history .
Many doer balk at acknowledge to havinga plan — for most , there ’s a sort of virtue in serendipity and luck — but Smith has picture refreshing candor . In his autobiography , he recount his exhaustive search to retrieve the " movie star " rule : “ [ Lassiter ] grabbed a inclination of the top - ten - grossing picture show to see if we could determine a blueprint . And it was crystal clear . [ … ] We knew what we were looking for . ” Special issue , creatures , and a romantic plot line — not needs in that order .
1995 make for his first action blockbuster , Bad Boys . It was a good for you hit . 1996’sIndependence Day , released just three years afterSix degree , was the highest - grossing pic of the class , hoard closely to double that of the second - place title , Twister . It had special effects , creature , and a romantic storyline . Twisterdid not have creatures .
“ A few films [ afterSix Degrees ] , we were talking about possibly doing a film together , ” Schepisi says . They did n’t make it , however , because Smith had just appeared in a film with a similar role , and he did n’t want to double up . That , in a nutshell , is the Will Smith route function to movie stardom : diversify your portfolio , refuse to stick to a specific case , and never take the soft itinerary . “ It ’s a wise thing to do , ” Schepisi concludes . And so it has proven to be .
