Page 43 - Will Smith: A Biography of a Rapper Turned Movie Star

From Rapper to Actor
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Sure, Smith was charming and funny in the music
videos. But there was no scripted dialogue as there would be
in a television show. In the videos, Smith was himself. He
was not playing a different character or reacting to another
actor’s dialogue. In the proposed show, Smith would be the
lead actor. It would be up to him to carry the program. That
was a lot of responsibility, and Tartikoff did not want to take
a big chance on an untested actor.
Jones and Medina would not quit. They insisted that
Smith was perfect for the role, and Tartikoff finally
compromised. He said he would consider Smith as long as
he passed an audition. Medina tracked down Smith on
tour in Indiana. This was the chance Smith had been
waiting for. He packed his bags, took a break from the tour,
and flew the next day to Los Angeles for the audition.
On a winter day early in 1990, Quincy Jones, Benny
Medina,Will Smith, andNBC executiveWarren Littlefield
met inside Jones’s mansion in the well-to-do Los Angeles
neighborhood of Bel-Air. Smith was given a script and
sent to a spare bedroom to rehearse. A little while later,
Will came out of the bedroom, nervous but ready to
perform. He put his heart into the audition and gave it
his best shot.
Littlefield recognized that Smith seemed anxious but
was amazed by his performance. “There were beads of
sweat [on Smith’s face],” he said. “But Will read from a
script and just nailed it. I sat there thinking, ‘Whoa! Just
bottle this guy!’”3