Even big Hollywood movie stars like Will Smith deal with racism. Typical fantasy worlds are made to escape from the ugly reality of our universe, but the actor's new movie, Bright, dives right into one of our biggest issues.
The trailer for Bright, a new Netflix original film set to come out in December, was released at San Diego Comic Con this year. Smith came to the convention to talk a little bit about the movie.
The movie turns Los Angeles into a magical world with fairies and magic. In this world, however, there's no magical school to whisk you off into mishaps and adventures — just touching a wand will kill you. Smith is an LAPD cop who gets an orc for a partner, much to his chagrin. He's played by Joel Edgerton, who you might know best from last year's Oscar-nominated Loving.
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Orcs are creepy looking monsters, but they're not evil. They're just different. Despite that, they've experienced so much discrimination that Smith's partner is one of the first orcs ever allowed on the LAPD. And Smith's character is pissed.
Will Smith the actor, though, is actually pretty pumped.
"I’m an African-American police officer who just found somebody else to be racist against,” Smith told the crowd. “You never get to be on that side of racism when you’re black. ‘Look, man, I don’t want no orcs in my car!'”
Obviously it's super funny when Will Smith is talking about it, but the movie is creating an interesting role reversal. That's, in part, thanks to the movie's director, David Ayer, who just worked with Smith on Suicide Squad. Smith was so good as Deadshot in Suicide Squad that we're probably in for some good entertainment with Bright.
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