You might not be able to take the schadenfreude out of the town some in Hollywood love to root for a competitors heartaches but you can take a bit of the town out of the man.
Will Smith said he will emotionally, and even physically, remove himself this weekend from the chatter over box office results for Focus, his first star turn since critics scoffed and most fans dodged 2013s After Earth.
Im probably going to leave town for a week or so, so I dont get sucked back into the machine, Smith said before the premiere of the grifter pic this week. I cant allow the box office success, or the lack thereof, to determine my self-image.
Thats no commentary on his feelings for Warner Bros. release Focus, which Smith touts as a genre-busting romp, with humor, drama and multiple plot turns. Projections suggest a solidopening of $21 million on an estimated production budget of $50 million.
But Smith said he learned his lesson following After Earth that its not wise to rely on the bottom line for happiness. The sci-fi action film, co-starring Smiths son Jaden, drew almost universal derision and made an anemic $60.5 million domestically on a $130 million budget. (It brought in a much healthier$183.3 million overseas.)
I am probably going to get out and, you know, not get the hourly update from ClevelandIt was up 10%! Smith said. I am just going to completely stay away from it.
Conveniently, Smith does not have to look far for a distraction. He has begun training for Suicide Squad, the David Ayer-helmed tentpole based on the DC comicbook. In the ensemble cast, Smith will play the Batman villain Deadshot and be reunited with Focus co-star Margot Robbie, who will play the Jokers maniacal girlfriend Harley Quinn.
Coming soonfor Smith is another star vehicle that could be in the awards conversation. Christmas Day release Concussion looks at the medical crisis facing pro football, with Smith as the steadfast brain specialist who refuses to bow to pressure that would bury findings about traumatic brain injuries.
Still, Smith can blame himself for the focus on his box office power. Few stars can approach the $2.7 billion his 21 films have accumulated. And the star admitted in a recent Esquire interview that he had made the bottom line the ultimate measure of his work.
I think there is a real question as to who his audience is, one top studio executive said this week, declining to be identified for fear of alienating Smith. At one time he had a younger audience. They either mature with you, or you have to put yourself in big movies with a younger demographic.
One of Smiths earliest mentors cautions against such doubts. Andy Borowitz, the writer who created TVs The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, recalled that Smith had hit big in the music business with hits like Parents Just Dont Understand. But at just 20, his happy brand of rap as half of DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince had been deemed softand bubblegum and suburban, Borowitz recalled.
Though barely out of his teens, some dubbed Smith a has been, Borowitz recalled, only to have his humor and charm help turn Fresh Prince into a long-running TV hit.
We like to root against people and call game over, said Borowitz, whose political satire is now featured in the New Yorker. It was done once before. I am in the camp of Dont bet against Will Smith, because it has been a losing bet so far.
Smith laughed when he said he would steer clear of this weekends box office results. But he also said he meant what he said.
My art has to be an offering, he said. Its ideas and concepts and things I believe in that I want to offer for the possibility of improving lives. And I cant allow the box office success, or lack thereof, to determine my self-image.
Source: http://variety.com/2015/film/news/will-smith-focused-on-career-not-box-office-results-1201442672/
