While Will Smith can pretty much do anything he pleases, and whatever role he chooses is most likely going to bring him at gobs and gobs of money, he turned down the lead role of Neo in The Matrix. The Matrix went on to become one of the greatest on most lucrative Sci-Fi’s in history and continues to inspire fight scenes to this day. Its huge success spawned two sequels, which were both utterly disappointing — though they made a lot of money, and reignited Keanu’s Reeves flagging career. However, Neo was a cold, sterile, inexpressive computer programmer who is forced to wake up from being a complete drone, a role–we can all agree–Keanu reeves was born to play.
