Will Smith in "King Richard" Warner Bros.
Smith originally wanted prosthetics to make him look like Richard Williams.
Reinaldo Marcus Green, Director of Insider, said that he stopped it.
He said, "We need him sink in and vanish, but that doesn’t mean making Richard look like Richard."
Will Smith is not the first actor to undergo a painful makeover to play real-life characters in biopics. However, Richard Williams, the film's director Reinaldo MarcusGreen, canceled the idea before "King Richard" began rolling. Smith is playing tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams.
Green recently told Insider that a team made up of prosthetic and makeup artists spent hours changing Smith into Williams during the preparations for "King Richard," which opens in theatres on November 19.
Green stated that Smith was made to look like Richard Williams.
Green stated that Smith's transformation was exciting for Warner Bros and Smith's team, but he wasn't interested in it.
Green said, "I was like, "Look, you guys did a great job, but that's not what I want."
(L-R: Richard Williams and Will Smith. Getty Images
Green, who has only two feature films to his credit - "Monsters and Men", 2018 and "Joe Bell", this year starring Mark Wahlberg -- said that he was not intimidated by the Hollywood setting for "King Richard" and spoke out about why Smith would need prosthetics.
Green stated that Will has an acting coach, who has been with him since he was a kid. He also had a dialect coach to help him speak like Richard. It would have required Will to spend three hours a day in the makeup chair. "Who wants to do that?"
"I looked straight into Will's eyes and said, "Look, we don’t need that," Green continued.
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Green stated that Smith would look too much like Williams and that this would cause audiences to be distracted from the performance and focus more on Smith's appearance.
Green stated that he doesn't want him to look like Will Smith. "We need him sink in and disappear. But that doesn't make him look like Richard."
"King Richard." Warner Bros.
The teams got together and dramatically reduced the makeup work. Instead of putting gray in Smith's hair, they put grey in Smith’s beard.
Green stated that Smith was calm and took in all the pros and con's while Richard Williams was making decisions.
Green stated that Will is very much his man. He's searching for the truth. He is watching."
Smith is aiming for his first Oscar win as Richard Williams. He plays the patriarch of the family and is driven to get his daughters, Venus and Serena, from the dangers of Compton and help them become tennis pros.
Insider has the original article.
