Will Smith Was Inspired to Take Sci-Fi Roles by Star Wars

Will Smith is one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, in part because he’s appeared in several well-received science fiction and fantasy films. From Independence Day to Men in Black to Hancock to more recent films like Suicide Squad and After Earth, it seems that Smith keeps returning to roles in genre films.

Later this year, Smith will star in the Netflix film Bright, in which he plays a police officer patrolling a world populated by both humans and fantasy characters. Smith sat in on a panel about the movie at San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday and was asked why he kept appearing in fantasy films.

“I was probably 10 years old when Star Wars came out and I have never been smashed like that in a movie theater,” Smith replied. “My mind was boggled, for this generation you have seen magnificent things in movies. When I saw Star Wars that was all new, I was completely blown away and so my whole life I have chased that and tried to give that feeling to fans.”

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Smith even jokingly compared the experience of watching Star Wars for the first time to the first time he had sex. “I had never matched that level of ecstasy [watching Star Wars]. Now, I had sex a few years later, but that probably didn’t match Star Wars.”

Bright, which is directed by Suicide Squad‘s David Ayer, will be released on December 22nd exclusively on Netflix.

The official description for Bright is below:

“Set in an alternate present-day where humans, orcs, elves and fairies have been coexisting since the beginning of time, this action-thriller directed by David Ayer (Suicide Squad, End of Watch, writer of Training Day) follows two cops from very different backgrounds. Ward, a human (Will Smith), and Jakoby, an orc (Joel Edgerton), embark on a routine night patrol that will alter the future of their world as they know it. Battling both their own personal differences as well as an onslaught of enemies, they must work together to protect a young female elf and a thought-to-be-forgotten relic, which in the wrong hands could destroy everything.

“The Netflix original film stars Will Smith, Joel Edgerton, Noomi Rapace, Lucy Fry, Edgar Ramirez, Ike Barinholtz, Enrique Murciano, Jay Hernandez, Andrea Navedo, Veronica Ngo, Alex Meraz, Margaret Cho, Brad William Henke, Dawn Olivieri, and Kenneth Choi. The film is directed by David Ayer and written by Max Landis. David Ayer, Eric Newman, and Bryan Unkeless serve as producers.”