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GLOBAL
superstar Will Smith is Robert Neville, the only
survivor of a devastating, manmade plague that has
decimated the world’s population in Warner Bros.’ new
sci-fi thriller I Am Legend. But the last man on
Earth is not alone...the plague had an adverse side
effect that transformed its victims into inhuman
creatures—carnivorous dark seekers called the Infected
that roam the streets at night with an unquenchable
hunger.
The
two-time Academy Award-nominated actor talks about his
new hit film (which recently opened to a record-breaking
$77-million gross in the US) in the following interview.
What
attracted you to this film?
It’s the
last thing you expect. 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.
How do
you feel about the character, is there anything of you
in him?
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 he has 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 the loss of
faith also. When I was growing 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. I just love the
audience sucker punch, like people are going to go into
this movie with preconceived notions and they’re going
to be totally and truly knocked off their butts.
As an
actor, how difficult is it to prepare for a role that is
basically solo, where you don’t have other actors with
whom to interact?
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 behavior, 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.
Do you
consider this film to be sci-fi, or sci-fact—how real do
you think is this situation?
The
types of movies that I’m trying to make now are nongenre. 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 nongenre. 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 theater,
different people will call it different things. Sci-fi
fans will say this is a great science-fiction movie;
drama fans will say this is a wonderful dramatic
depiction of post-apocalyptic trauma. I think everyone
who sits in the movie theater will experience the
spectrum, versus a specific genre.
Have you
always liked to do sci-fi films in the past?
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.
How
difficult was it to film this movie in a New York that is deserted?
New
Yorkers don’t like it 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.
How
physical a role is 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.
You’ve
worked before with director Francis Lawrence on a music
video. How was it to work with him on this feature?
He’s
extremely easygoing, confident and collaborative. He saw
this movie for a long time in his head. The shooting was
extremely smooth, and it’s aggressive. I like the work
environment to be aggressive, when we are aggressively
going for something. He was able to take it all in
stride. Because of his music-video experience and his
commercial experience, he was able to create, adapt and
move quickly.
How
about writing and producing, are they in your plans?
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.
Would
you want to direct?
Oh,
absolutely.
Do you
have any favorite movies that you’ve done?
The most
fun was Mike Lowry in Bad Boys. To be in
Miami with a fast car, a normal T-shirt and a gun, that’s the
life, right there [laughs]. It doesn’t get any better
than that, as far as fun. I think probably my best
performance is Ali. 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. I think that my performance in I Am
Legend will rival the best that I’ve ever done. And
I think that I Am Legend will be a lot of
people’s favorite movie that I have ever done.
*
Opening across the
Philippines
on January 8, I Am Legend is distributed by Warner Bros.
Pictures. |
