No To Neo: Why Did Will Smith Turn Down So Many Big Roles?

Will Smith has revealed that he passed on starring roles in several of the biggest films in Hollywood — seemingly huge misses that he calls “beautiful scars.”

The 56-year-old actor has discussed turning down several major movie roles, including parts in “The Matrix,” “Inception,” and “Django Unchained.” Smith revealed some of the reasons why he passed on those projects, including not understanding the point the movies were trying to make and having a difference of opinion about the narratives.

During a June 2025 interview with Kiss Xtra, Smith revealed that director Christopher Nolan offered him the lead in the hit film “Inception” (2010), but he decided not to take it.

“Chris Nolan brought me ‘Inception’ first, and I didn’t get it. I’ve never said that out loud,” he told the outlet of the sci-fi action heist film.

“Movies that go into those alternate realities…they don’t pitch well,” he continued, explaining that the concept of dreams within dreams did not make sense to him during the pitch process.

“Inception,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role that Smith turned down, earned over $839 million worldwide.

Nolan’s blockbuster isn’t the only time Smith made a big mistake in turning down movie roles. The actor previously confirmed that he turned down the role of Neo in “The Matrix” (1999), a part that later went to Keanu Reeves and helped define the latter’s Hollywood career.

In a 2019 video posted on YouTube, Smith said, “I’m not proud of it, but it’s the truth…I did turn down Neo.” He explained that the pitch didn’t sway him because it left him confused. “That was one of my beautiful scars…But there’s a fine line in a pitch meeting between genius and what I experienced.”

Will Smith slaps Chris Rock onstage at the Oscars (Photo by ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)

The actor explained how the pitch sounded to him at the time, including how the scene involving the iconic slow motion action sequences was described.

“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,” he said, per The Independent.

“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.”

Instead of taking the role in “The Matrix,” Smith chose to star in “Wild Wild West,” which did not achieve the same level of critical or commercial success. “The Matrix” went on to earn approximately $460 million globally and remains a cultural touchstone.

And that’s not all. The Hollywood A-lister also turned down the Quentin Tarantino film “Django Unchained” (2012) after being approached early on for the lead role, which ultimately went to Jamie Foxx.

In a 2015 roundtable discussion with The Hollywood Reporter, Smith said he had a difference of opinion with Tarantino about the film’s narrative.

“It was about the creative direction of the story,” he said at the time. “To me, it’s as perfect a story as you could ever want: a guy that learns how to kill to retrieve his wife that has been taken as a slave. That idea is perfect. And it was just that Quentin [Tarantino] and I couldn’t see [eye to eye]. I wanted to make the greatest love story that African-Americans had ever seen.”

“We talked, we met, we sat for hours and hours about it,” Smith explained at the time. “I wanted to make that movie so badly, but I felt the only way was, it had to be a love story, not a vengeance story. I don’t believe in violence as the reaction to violence. So when I’m looking at that, it’s like, ‘No, no, no. It has to be for love.’”

In a later appearance on his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s Red Table Talk, Smith mentioned that he turned down the role because of his family.

“I was going to do Django,” he said. “We had a family meeting and we all talked about Django. I wasn’t all the way in, but one of the main reasons that I wasn’t was the looks on your faces ’cause you knew what that would mean and those characters seep back into the house.”

Smith has described these decisions as “beautiful scars,” acknowledging them as significant moments in his career. He used the phrase in both interviews and in his 2025 song “Beautiful Scars,” where he referenced “The Matrix” and other surprising career choices.

The song and music video feature Smith reenacting a scene from “The Matrix” where Smith is offered the red and blue pills. In the video, Smith is offered the choice to go back and star in “The Matrix,” but he ultimately chooses to embrace his past choices and let it go.

Despite passing on these films, Smith has chosen some hits in Hollywood, including “Independence Day,” “Men in Black,” and “The Pursuit of Happyness.” He won an Academy Award for his work in “King Richard” in 2022, which was the same night of the now-infamous slap he gave to Oscars host Chris Rock.