He does credit one role as serving as his acting school, but he grew into acting after having an impressive stage presence as a rapper.īut for the people who portrayed the homeless folks on film in 'The Pursuit of Happyness,' nothing seems to have come from the gig. On IMDb, the people who appeared as homeless characters are credited in roles like "Homeless Guy In Line" and "Homeless Guy," "Homeless Teen," although a couple of the homeless character roles were played by 'actual' actors.įans may recall that Will Smith himself started out as an actor with literally zero experience. RELATED: How Much Did Will Smith Get Paid For 'The Pursuit Of Happyness'?
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It's an interesting move by the cast and crew (Will Smith himself was one of the producers), but hiring homeless people did make the movie more authentic.Īfter all, the storyline came from the real-life experiences of Chris Gardner, who lost almost everything, became homeless with his son, and then grew his own multi-million dollar business.Īs for the homeless actors on set? They didn't go on to enjoy such high heights of fame as the lead actor in the film, but they did earn a wage for their roles. In truth, they weren't actors they were actual homeless folks who agreed to appear in the film. But while Smith was already a superstar by the time he filmed 'The Pursuit of Happyness' in 2006, there were also some lesser-known actors on set. It's certainly entertaining.Looking back at Will Smith's acting history, fans can almost track his upward rise based on both film roles and his income growth. The opposite, however, is not necessarily dishonest. Maybe it would have been more statistically truthful to show someone trying and failing. In this film, they meet in the person of the hero himself. Even in an admirable film like Nick Broomfield's Ghosts, the immigrant Chinese are the poor ones and the indigenous Brits are the wealthy ones, and ne'er the twain shall meet. But what is interesting is the taboo subject of how close the middle classes can get to poverty. You can’t really measure how happy you are, you can’t put a unit on it, but you can feel it. The genial and likable Will Smith might be a very idealised version of what the fiercely driven Gardner was actually like - and the exact circumstances of his marital breakup are probably not rendered with absolute realism. Will & Jaden Smith as Chris & Christopher Gardner. That may cause a little squeamishness and nose-wrinkling in some quarters. But, unlike Billy Elliot, Gardner wants not to dance but make some serious bucks. Frantically, Gardner keeps up appearances in front of the wealthy Ivy Leaguers who study alongside him. But as he studies, Gardner is thrown out of his apartment for non-payment of rent, and he and his boy have to spend the night at homeless hostels, and even in a subway men's room. Then Gardner, with his smart head for figures, manages to get an unpaid internship at a top brokerage firm: fate has given him a kind of bridging loan between a grindingly poor present and a possible comfortable future. His wife (Thandie Newton) leaves him and he and his boy are in desperate straits.
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A struggling salesman takes custody of his son as hes poised to begin a life-changing professional career. With Will Smith, Jaden Smith, Thandiwe Newton, Brian Howe.
Will Smith plays Gardner, a blue-collar guy who cares about standards: he complains about the misspelling of "happiness" on the mural near his son's playschool. The Pursuit of Happyness: Directed by Gabriele Muccino. For some, the fact that this is about poverty overcome and defeated will render the movie inauthentic or even mendacious. This was a man who managed to grow very rich, that most politically incorrect of things, by founding his own stockbroking firm. For all the film's occasional cheesiness, it's entertaining, good-natured and decently acted - and interesting in that it talks about the unglamorous subject of poverty. W ill Smith's new film is an old-fashioned Hollywood heartwarmer: a Horatio Alger-type tale based on the true story of US multi-millionaire Chris Gardner, who experienced hardship and homelessness before he found success.