Will Smith’s 10 Most Underrated Characters

Will Smith is by far one of the biggest stars in the modern era of filmmaking, but not every one of his performances has gotten its just recognition. From weighty blockbuster franchises like the Men in Black movies to poignant one-off dramas like King Richard or The Pursuit of Happyness, Will Smith has earned his reputation as a versatile performer. Despite Smith’s impressive cumulative box office lifetime career total, the actor still has plenty of characters that don’t get talked about enough.

Admittedly, Will Smith tends to play a lot of characters that simply repackage his standard persona into a new setting, even re-writing dialogue to sound more in-line with his personal brand. But Smith has also demonstrated the true breadth of his acting chops in smaller indie films and lesser-known movies that get unfairly outshone by the most iconic Will Smith characters. Both types of Will Smith performances have gone underappreciated when stacked up against his larger filmography

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10

Deadshot

Suicide Squad

2016’s Suicide Squad is one of the most infamously bad superhero movies ever made, and for good reason. From the garishly obvious last-minute studio-mandated edits to the atrocious writing and cinematography, there aren’t many redeeming qualities to the supervillain team-up movie. But for all of Suicide Squad‘s faults, Will Smith’s Deadshot certainly isn’t one of them, unfairly lumped in with the rest of the film’s problems.

Considering Smith’s star power, Deadshot is given some of the most time to shine of the film’s ensemble cast, making his development all the better for it. His relationship with his daughter is a compelling sub-plot in an otherwise dreadful narrative, and his believable firearms skill honed over years of action movies lets him excel as the famous DC marksman. Even if he says one of the most cringe-worthy lines of any DC movie, “What, we some kinda Suicide Squad?“, Deadshot stands out as a true diamond in the rough.

9

Nicky Spurgeon

Focus

Suicide Squad wasn’t the only time Will Smith and Margot Robbie shared top-billing in a much-maligned feature, although Focus is known to far fewer moviegoers. The film posits Smith as a veteran con man, Nicky Spurgeon, who falls for a beautiful young woman, teaching her the tricks of his trade before eventually ending things. When she shows up again years later on the opposite side of another con, Nicky has to walk the razor’s edge balancing his feelings and lies.

Will Smith and Margot Robbie have great romantic chemistry here, their toxic attraction penetrating the blurry lines of work as a con artist. Smith is as suave and smooth as ever in the role that truly takes advantage of his endless supply of charisma, and Robbie does a great job matching him as she becomes just as big of a grifter as her former lover. Sadly, the explosive twists and turns and relative obscurity of the film overshadow Smith’s brilliant performance.

8

Daryl Ward

Bright

Between the Bad Boys movies and oodles of other action appearances, Will Smith has played a police officer many times. But none of these cop roles can hold a candle to Daryl Ward from Bright, who solves crimes that Smith’s other characters would be astonished by. Darly Ward is a cop in a modern fantasy world in which humans share living quarters with other fantasy races like Elves and Orcs. Assigned to an Orc partner, Daryl is put into a difficult position when the two come across a powerful magic user.

Bright isn’t exactly a fondly-remembered film, often put down for its nonsensical worldbuilding and clumsy use of fantasy races to mirror real-world racial tensions. Once again, Smith’s performance is easily the best part of an otherwise bad film, balancing the over-serious tone with his wisecracks and classic buddy-cop antics with his Orc partner. The perfect everyman, Daryl Ward proves why simple human fighters can sometimes be the most compelling characters in a fantasy setting.

7

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Lance Sterling

Spies in Disguise

Will Smith is perhaps not as prolific in animation compared to other Hollywood legends with names as big as his, with the infamous Shark Tale being his most notable foray into the genre. But a recent animated film from 2019 quietly put out one of his most unique characters only to be resoundingly glossed over. Enter Spies in Disguise, an animated movie that supposes Will Smith is a famous super-spy, Lance Sterling, who is transformed into a pigeon by his Q equivalent.

The low-brow comedy antics of Spies in Disguise are nothing groundbreaking, but they certainly get the job done for a family-friendly animated feature. What is noteworthy is just how cool Lance Sterling actually is when allowed to go all-out in his human form, effortlessly dismantling entire armies of terrorists without needing to adjust his tie. With the addition of Smith’s dulcet tones, Sterling’s status as an unstoppable force makes it all the funnier when he’s forced to spend the majority of the film as an unintelligent bird.

6

John Hancock

Hancock

Releasing in 2008, Hancock is a superhero movie quite ahead of its time, deconstructing the genre just as it was truly beginning to explode in popularity. The film stars Will Smith as an amnesiac hero with classic Superman-esque powers. Having fallen prey to vices like sex and drinking, Hancock’s efforts to restore his public image are hampered when he meets a ghost from his mysterious past who also has superpowers.

The worst parts about Hancock is how it abruptly changes tones and storylines mid-way through, suddenly asking audiences to care about a deep, poorly-explained superhero lore just as the story of Hancock’s redemption is starting to get good. For what it’s worth, Smith puts in an incredible performance as the jaded former hero, remaining shockingly unlikable the entire way through for a Will Smith character. Few other films offer the same flavor of Will Smith that Hancock does, making it worth watching in its own right.

5

Detective Del Spooner

I, Robot

Perhaps the single most criminally underrated of Will Smith’s action movies, I, Robot deserves to be spoken in the same breath as Independence Day and Men in Black when it comes to Smith’s science fiction prowess. Loosely based on Isaac Aasimov’s short-story collection of the same name, I, Robot takes place in a far-off future in which humanoid robot servants have become commonplace. When a powerful CEO mysteriously “commits suicide”, Smith’s Detective Del Spooner investigates alongside a remarkable android named Sonny.

Del Spooner is quite fleshed out for the average Will Smith action protagonist. His poignant reasons for disliking robots are quite understandable, even if the audience wants him to get along with Sonny. Spooner’s cynical jokes and obsession with Converse shoes give a certain level of texture the average Smith persona doesn’t quite reach, and the film is all the stronger for it. It’s shocking that I, Robot isn’t more of a cultural touchstone when it comes to Will Smith’s work.

4

Paul

Six Degrees of Separation

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One of Will Smith’s earlier movies that was in production while the up-and-coming star was still showing up on the set of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Six Degrees of Separation is tragically underseen. Once again, Will Smith is a con man here, though he distinguishes himself quite drastically from Nicky Spurgeon. This time around, Smith’s Paul convinces a wealthy couple that he is the son of famed actor Sidney Poitier.

Six Degrees of Separation is one of Smith’s best early roles, proving himself as a young actor seeking recognition. The role is quite shocking in just how against-type it was for Smith, still known as the goofy, lovable Will from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. One of the first characters to prove Smith could handle more emotionally complicated and vulnerable roles, Paul was a career-defining role for Will Smith, who was actually based on a real-life con man that attempted the same scheme.

3

Robert Clayton Dean

Enemy of the State

Most of the time, the idea of a “Will Smith action movie” brings to mind a wise-cracking character who is just as comfortable flashing his pearly whites as he is in a heated firefight. That’s not the case for Smith’s character in Enemy of the State, an abnormality in his action blockbuster filmography. This film instead stars Smith as family man Robert Clayton Dean, a lawyer whose life is put into jeopardy upon being targeted by a government agency.

Directed by the legendary Ridley Scott, Enemy of the State ranks quite highly among the critical performances of Will Smith’s movies. This makes it all the more shameful that it isn’t a more prolific film in his portfolio, as he does a brilliant job capturing a relatable protagonist who ends up way in over his head. It’s great to see roles that put Smith in a more vulnerable position, ratcheting up the tension with the knowledge that he isn’t an unstoppable action hero.

2

Robert Neville

I Am Legend

Custom image by Ryan Northrup

Another science fiction movie in Will Smith’s catalog that often gets unfairly glossed over, I Am Legend is also a rare example of Smith encountering the horror genre. Adapted from the novel of the same name by Richard Matheson, I Am Legend takes place in a post-apocalyptic world in which the majority of humanity has been overrun by a virus that converts people into monstrous vampire-like beings. Carving out a living in an deserted city along with his faithful German Shepherd, Will Smith stars as scientist Robert Neville.

Even though he’s no slouch in the action department, it’s great to see Smith as a character that uses his brains just as well as his brawn. Smith’s chemistry with his dog here also makes for one of the most tear-jerking moments of his entire career, almost ruined by the abysmal theatrical ending. It’ll be interesting to see how Will Smith returns to the character in the upcoming I Am Legend sequel that supposes the original ending took place.

1

Henry Brogan/Junior

Gemini Man

By the time Gemeni Man released, Will Smith was already a well-worn action star, and the film’s trailers didn’t sell audiences on the fairly generic-looking flick. This is a tragedy considering that Gemini Man is quietly one of Will Smith’s most emotionally intense performances in an action movie ever, going painfully unnoticed by many. Gemini Man stars Smith as Henry Brogan, a decorated spec-ops soldier who is targeted by the head of a rogue private military corporation after new details about his last mission are leaked.

For the task of eliminating such a dangerous target, the mysterious GEMINI company uses a literal clone of Henry. Will Smith is excellent as both the original Henry and the digitally de-aged “Junior”, a hateful being with a confused place in the world with mixed emotions about his mission. The fact that Will Smith is able to carry an otherwise generic action movie in a powerful dual role is a true testament to his acting chops.

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