Am I Legend?

Will Smith in I Am Legend

WILL SMITH'S LEGENDARY CAREER STILL SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION FROM WHITE PEERS

Will Smith is one of the few minority bona fide A-list stars on the planet. Additionally, he is the only minority in Hollywood who opens his own blockbusters – and when we say “opens his own blockbusters,” we mean taking the undisputed leading role in a big-budgeted and heavily-promoted movie produced by a major Hollywood studio. So why is his atypical status so archetypical? More importantly, how?

Let us start by acknowledging that Smith is enjoying a rather exceptional Hollywood career by any actor’s standards – whether White or Black. Yet, the fact Smith’s movies have been financially successful at movie box offices the world over does not mean that his characters completely escape the enveloping grasp of the HARM  theory. Hollywood’s Acting Rule for Minorities essentially states that if and when a minority character appears in a mainstream movie, they are likely to be compromised in some way, shape or form. Hence, part of the problem surrounding Smith’s isolated success within Hollywood circles, is well, because it is so isolated.

To place Smith’s current movie in context, let us look to the recent past to see how Smith has been featured in the spotlight. After making his big-screen debut in the critically-acclaimed Six Degrees of Separation as a skinny, wide-eyed, cross-over mainstream-rap-star-with-a-nationally-syndicated-television show, Smith moved on to bigger heroic roles within the blockbuster genre with appearances in Independence Day; Wild, Wild, West; and the Men in Black series. Yet, with these examples, Smith for the most part, shared the spotlight with a White male co-star who was equally if not more heroic.

Although Smith also headlined movies such as Ali and Hitch, these movies do not fit the profile of a big-budget blockbuster (e.g., released during the summer or over the holiday season). Thus, I, Robot is a particularly unique example since it was a widely marketed summer blockbuster featuring a Black male protagonist in a non-comedic role. While this accomplishment must not be skipped over or diminished, what requires further analysis is how Smith’s character (Detective Del Spooner) remains essentially isolated from any other prominently featured minorities during the movie. Not only does Det. Spooner’s “circle of influence” during the heart of the movie’s climactic action and drama sequences involve exclusively White characters, but most of Detective Spooner’s interactions throughout the movie are also primarily with White characters (see You Mean, There’s Race in My Movie, p. 230).

Fast forwarding to today, we ironically see that in a blockbuster movie in which Smith headlines, he coincidentally is placed in a vehicle that showcases his talent primarily in isolation from other (normal) characters, whether White or otherwise (compare Smith’s isolation to that of Tom Hanks in Castaway). If anything, such isolation speaks to the racial comfort level of studios and their sensitivity not to “over populate” their higher-priced movies with minority characters for fear of discouraging large segments of the mainstream population from patronizing the movie because it no longer appeals or is applicable to them as a “Black movie.” For this reason, Smith, as one of the few minority bona fide A-list stars on the planet, must appear onscreen literally as the last man on the planet.