Where there's a Will there's a Dude

The Dude: Will Smith! You have no idea how cool it is to talk to a great action movie guy like you. At least I'm not going to get those pretentious answer the arty actors give you. So dude, what made you go for this here I am a Legend?
WILL SMITH: I read the script almost ten years ago and I just love how bold it is…the last man on earth. To even have the audacity to make a movie by yourself (laughs) – that idea is always exciting and I guess, for me, the degree of difficulty is always intriguing. The closer to impossible that it seems and the more people that think it can’t work, the more excited I am by it.

I know what you're saying man. I think. So you must have loved playing this dude who's a legend considering you're a legend too.
It was some of the opposite of who I am in the character that intrigued me, in that it’s rare that I feel alone and actually am alone. I grew up with three dozen sisters (laughs, in reality three sisters) in a three bedroom house. My entire life, there was always someone else sleeping in the room with me, so the idea of loneliness and to explore the idea of what it means to truly feel alone (intrigued me), and loss of faith also. When I grew up, my grandmother was a devout Christian, so we were drilled as kids with the idea that you are not alone. So, the spiritual loneliness of this story, the physical loneliness, and the ideas of hope and fear, there were a lot of themes that were exciting to me to explore in a movie that people may think is a zombie movie.

Huh? You're losing me a bit. Um… it's gotta be tough when you do so much of your work in this flick solo, with no one to bounce off.
Fortunately, I’ve made special effects movies a lot, so there’s a whole lot of green screen stuff where you’re actually acting by yourself or with a green tennis ball that’s supposed to be a monster. So, my experience has made me feel comfortable in those situations. But, as an actor, it was a great exploration because you have to truly figure out what the moment is about. There’s no dialogue; there’s only your behaviour, so you have to run through the bizarre stream of consciousness of emotion without anyone sparking you. When you have the external stimulus, it directs your actions, but if no one is there, that external stimulus has to be replaced by what your mind stimulates. It is such a wonderful acting exercise. As human beings we’re stimulus response creatures, so to have to create the stimulus and the response was a beautiful psychological journey, but it also shows you how close we all live to the edge of insanity. It was emotionally, intellectually, spiritually stimulating.

Bloody hell… that's doing my head in just contemplating it. All I really wanted to know was do you consider this film to be sci-fi, or sci-fact?
The types of movies that I’m trying to make now are non-genre. I’m trying, at this point in my career, to fit the small ‘art movies’ into the middle of the big, stellar, blockbuster casing. I think that with I Am Legend, the design is non-genre. Everything starts with human trauma, as in life. All things stem from trauma. There was a trauma experienced and the movie is designed around the exploration of the trauma that the person experiences. So, we’re trying not to allow the genre to dictate what the scene can be. In the movie theatre different people will call it different things. Sci-fi fans will say this is a great science fiction movie; drama fans will say this was a wonderful dramatic depiction of post-apocalyptic trauma. I think everyone watches will experience the spectrum, versus a specific genre.

What the hell? I have no idea if you answered that or not. Let's try something easier Will; do … you … like … sci … fi … movies?
I have always loved sci-fi. This movie is more of a throwback to the days before lots of big special effects came in, when science fiction was all story. They were forced to make a drama that was about a futuristic idea. So, yes, I love science fiction, and in this film all the concentration is on character and story. The special effects are this added bonus that just keeps punching you in the face when you least expect it.

Okay. Now that wasn't hard, was it? I reckon it must have been harder making this movie in a New York that is deserted.
New Yorkers don’t like when you make Fifth Avenue look deserted on Monday morning. It was 9 AM on Monday morning and we shut down six blocks of Fifth Avenue and people didn’t like it, but it looks insane in the movie. You can clearly see that New York is empty. It’s chilling because it’s places that you’re used to seeing but you realize that you’ve never actually seen New York empty, ever. It does something viscerally when you see it because even if you’re not actually recalling the images, you know that something really awful had to happen for Fifth Avenue to be empty.

Okay Will, you're losing me again. Let's get back to basics. How physical a role was this for you?
There’s not a lot of hand-to-hand combat with the Dark Seekers (the mutants of the film); it’s mostly from a distance, and because of the nature of their strength and speed, you can’t really fight them up close. It was mostly running and shooting.

And your daughter is in this one. You're making a habit of dropping the kids in a flick these days, aren't you.
Yes. Well, my last film, The Pursuit of Happyness, was with my son, Jaden, and my daughter just wasn’t having that. She wasn’t happy about that at all. There was a role for a daughter in this script, in the pre-apocalyptic section where I‘m trying to get my family out of New York, so there are a couple of scenes with my daughter, Willow, who is six-years-old.

You're pulling a shifty, aren't you. Who's it gonna be next?
I have a nephew who just put his first single out.

Now you're plugging family music too? What's next? Have you got a new song coming out or something?
No music at all. Specifically, with I Am Legend, I think that I’m hitting a stride right now and as an actor I’m growing exponentially with every project so I can’t take my focus away right now because I feel like I’m about to go places and do things that I’ve never dreamed before. I’m totally focusing on creating relationships with genius cinematic minds. I want to elevate my ability to create; I want to elevate cinema, and my hope is one day, like other artists in the past, we’ll be able to create something that changes humanity, that changes the way people do things. So, lofty goals, but I’m not going to be able to do it if I’m focusing on other things.

What are you talking about? You gonna write and produce now or something?
There’s a filmmaking process that myself and Akiva Goldsman have been developing. We’re looking at it in terms of a team sport and not in the old school of a director makes the movie. You put together a team and you go out as a team and try to win.

Come on man, are you serious? The movie business is supposed to be about fun and entertainment. Do you have any fun anymore or are you taking it all so seriously?
The most fun was Mike Lowry in Bad Boys. To be in Miami with a fast car, a tight T-shirt and a gun, that’s the life, right there (laughs). It doesn’t get any better than that, as far as fun.

That's more like it! I reckon you kicked butt in Independence Day too!
I think probably my best performance is Ali.

You're kidding yourself.
I think the best all-around movies that I’ve ever made would be the first Men In Black or The Pursuit of Happyness, just as a complete movie.

You're best acting: Fresh Prince my friend!
I think that my performance in I Am Legend will rival the best that I’ve ever done.

No way.
I think that I Am Legend will be a lot of people’s favourite movie that I have ever done.

That's it. I'm done.