Will Smith is famous for performing his own movie stunts, but he is also notoriously known for once claiming that he is better than Tom Cruise. The Mission: Impossible star is widely recognized for executing death-defying stunts on movie sets, and despite his age, he continues to surprise fans with his extraordinary skills.
For the longest time, Smith attempted to beat Cruise at his own game and even tried to outdo the actor’s record and training. As a seasoned star, it is only fitting that Smith would aim for the best, especially when starring in action movies.
Will Smith Realized He Can’t Beat Tom Cruise In Doing His Own Stunts
In his appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Men in Black star Will Smith revealed he wanted to perform his own stunts on the set of Bad Boys for Life without using any body double, just like Tom Cruise. Immediately afterward, he took back his statement:
“I’m trying to hang on. There were a couple of the action sequences that I was like, ‘Oooh.’ I started, and I told myself that I was doing all of my stunts. Tom Cruise was just hanging on the side of an airplane at 50. I was like, ‘Man, I am better than Tom Cruise.’ I did like two stunts, and I was like, ‘I’m not better than Tom Cruise.’”
Smith told in another interview that there had been a lot of changes in his physical capabilities after all those years filming for the Bad Boys franchise. He said on Good Morning America (via Ace Showbiz):
“The big change for us [from previous films] was probably the amount of stunt work. When I started, I was like, ‘We doing all the stunts, we doing everything, every one of these Bad Boys, 25 years later, all the stunts!’ Then like, probably three days in, I looked over to [Lawrence], and was like, ‘Hey, what you thinking?’ He was like, ‘Yeah, we should probably let the stuntmen earn the money.’”
In his recent Instagram post, Smith shared a photo of him running in Dubai and immediately regretted it after confessing he felt “wrecked”:
“Me feelin’ real confident right before running a 5K in Dubai when it was 100°F/38°C!! Damn near WRECKED me hahaha”
It seems like Will Smith is already feeling all the physical changes in his body as he ages. However, because of this, he might find it even more challenging to beat Tom Cruise in doing his own stunts.
Will Smith Wanted To Outshine Tom Cruise In Promotional Tours
Will Smith did not only try to outdo Tom Cruise in the field of stunts, but the Emancipation star also endeavored to compete with him on promotional movie tours. Smith would extend two more hours in every country he would visit, as he admitted in his self-titled memoir (via Insider):
“I started quietly monitoring all of Tom’s global promotional activities. When I arrived in a country to promote my movie, I would ask the local movie executives to give me Tom’s promotional schedule. And I vowed to do two hours more than whatever he did in every country.”
Unfortunately, this was beyond Smith’s powers. He called Cruise a “cyborg” because the actor would spend four and a half hours on red carpets signing every single autograph. But, there was still hope for Smith as he turned to his music career and made sure there were live performances on his press tours, something the Top Gun: Maverick star never had.
Sources: The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Ace Showbiz, Instagram, Insider
