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Many people, normal people who aren’t Outposters, don’t know that Firefly star Alan Tudyk voiced the robot, Sonny, in I, Robot.
The 2004 Will Smith vehicle was inspired by an Isaac Asimov short story collection. Directed by Alex Proyas, it is set in future-Chicago, 2035, and follows a detective (Smith) who is trying to solve a murder that may have been committed by a robot (Tudyk).
In an interview with the Toon’d In podcast, Tudyk revealed why many people don’t know it is him. He was removed from the publicity.
“They were doing test audiences with the movie and they score the characters and I got word back, ‘Alan, you’re testing higher than Will Smith’. And then I was gone. I was gone. There was no publicity and my name was not mentioned. I was so shocked, I was like, ‘But wait, nobody’s going to know that I [play the robot].’”
So there you go. Don’t upstage the star turn on their own star vehicle!
During the late 1990s and early 2000s, before The Wild, Wild West and “the slap”, Will Smith was the biggest thing in Hollywood.
His name was attached to everything and the symbiosis between his musical career and his acting career was perfected.
Upstage that in Hollywood, and as happened here, you get barred from the junket and removed from the press materials.
Harsh!
Tudyk also explained that he was the motion capture performer for the robots and, at the time, he felt he was pushed aside after putting in maximum effort.
I, Robot had a supporting cast of Bridget Moynahan, Bruce Greenwood, James Cromwell, Chi McBride, and Shia LaBeouf. It made more than $350 million from a $120 million budget.
It suddenly occurs to me that I have seen I, Robot just once, about 20 years ago.
Maybe one for my rewatch list…
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