While Will Smith famously passed on starring in The Matrix, unbeknownst to us, he’s been making his own home movie version all along.
Frazer Harrison/Getty Images; Everett Collection
On Monday, Smith celebrated the 27th birthday of his firstborn, Trey Smith, by giving the internet a true gift. “When @treysmith0011 was growing up, every year for his bday we would shoot an episode of a home movie called ‘The Treytrix’ where I was the bad guy trying to kill him and he had to defend the family,” wrote Smith on Instagram, sharing a very early 2000s production of Smith and Smith facing off (it’s much more entertaining than Gemini Man‘s recent Smith v Smith battle).
Earlier this year, Smith explained that he didn’t sign up for The Matrix after being less than impressed with the pitch from the Wachowskis, who at that time had only directed one film. “….So I made Wild Wild West,” joked Smith. “I’m not proud of it.” Despite Wild Wild West being an infamous bomb, Smith said he didn’t regret the decision because “I probably would have messed The Matrix up. I would have ruined it, so I did y’all a favor.”
However, if Smith had listened to his wife Jada Pinkett Smith, then things could have been very different. Pinkett Smith, who starred in the Matrix sequels, recently told EW of the first film, “I knew it would be revolutionary. I was like, ‘Will, you’ve got to do this movie!’ He didn’t fully get it, but I did.”
Watch the Smiths version of The Matrix above.
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