Will Smith reveals he turned down ‘Inception’ before Leonardo DiCaprio took the role

Will Smith has long been popular for his blockbuster hits and his career-defining roles, but in a surprising revelation, he has opened up about some of the major films he passed on—and the reasons might surprise you.

In a recent chat on the ‘Kiss Xtra’ podcast, Smith confessed that he was originally offered the lead role in Christopher Nolan’s mind-bending thriller ‘Inception’.

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Yes, before Leonardo DiCaprio stepped into the now-iconic role, Nolan approached Smith to headline the film.

The actor admitted he simply didn’t understand the story when it was pitched to him.

“I don’t think I’ve ever said this publicly,” Will Smith began, as quoted by ‘Variety’. “Chris Nolan brought me ‘Inception’ first, and I didn’t get it. I’ve never said that out loud. But now that I think about it, those kinds of movies that dive into alternate realities… they don’t pitch well. But, you know, missing out on them still hurts.”

For many fans, this comes as a shock, especially since Smith’s list of rejected roles already includes ‘The Matrix’ and ‘Django Unchained’—both massively successful films. And his reason for walking away from ‘The Matrix’ was quite straightforward: he didn’t connect with the Wachowskis’ pitch at the time.

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In fact, Smith shared the story in a YouTube video back in 2019, humorously describing how the concept was presented to him.

He recalled the directors enthusiastically telling him, “Imagine you’re in a fight, you jump, and then you can stop in mid-air. People can see you from all around in 360 degrees. We’re going to invent these cameras, and everyone can watch you while you’re frozen in the jump.”

Another major film Smith turned down was Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Django Unchained’. The actor explained that it wasn’t the story itself that held him back—it was the creative direction. Smith said he loved the idea of a man fighting to rescue his enslaved wife, but he wanted the focus to be more about love than revenge.

“It was about the creative direction of the story,” he told ‘The Hollywood Reporter’. “It’s a perfect story: a guy learning to kill to save his wife. I wanted to make that movie so badly, but it had to be a love story, not a vengeance story. Quentin and I just couldn’t see eye to eye on that.”