Will Smith says that social media may prevent us from finding the next movie star.
Will Smith is known for his legendary transition from a hip hop rapper into a box office actor. His transition from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air took Smith’s career to new heights. But, would Will Smith be famous if he grew up with social media? According to Will Smith, the answer is no. In fact, he believes that social media is killing the careers for dozens of aspiring actors.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, Will smith revealed that his acting career would have been extremely different if he grew up in this new age of social media.
“If I had to grow up in the age of the Internet and Twitter, there’d be a very, very different story that would be written,” said Smith. “Fortunately, most of my career, I was shielded from that level of scrutiny. There actually was privacy. There was actually the ability to create mystery.”
The actor said that in his opinion, “movie stars need mystery.”
Will Smith continued on by saying, “People need to not know in order to come to see you in a movie theater, whereas music is slightly different. People want to know you. They want to feel connected to you.”
Without Twitter and Facebook, Will Smith was able to create a different kind of Hollywood star. “I had the opportunity to create the level of mystery in my life that it takes to be a movie star,” he said. “I’d be really interested to see if there will be any new movie stars. It’s a difficult thing to create.”
You can listen to the full podcast here.
Will Smith may be right. Many casting directors have revealed that actor with a larger social media following tend to land bigger acting jobs than actors that do not. In fact, actors on YouTube are making more money than actual A-list actors.
