His dream of Genie
Smith plays to his own beat in ‘Aladdin’
LOS ANGELES — Will Smith knew he was stepping into big shoes as the wish-granting Genie in Disney’s liveaction version of its animated classic “Aladdin.”
That 1992 Oscar winner soared with Robin Williams’ improvised riffs as the man in the bottle.
Smith discovered with this, his first Disney movie, that “Disney Magic is real. At the core of these stories is something that shocks the inner child within you and forces it to come alive and smile and appreciate the moment. This was the most joyful experience of my career.
“For me it was first starting with fear — what Robin Williams did with this character! He didn’t leave a lot of
room to add. But once I started with the music it started waking up that fun, silly, child part of me.
“The song that resonated the most, that got me over the hump of ‘Yes! I can play Genie’ was ‘Friend Like Me.’ I went to the studio and wanted to see if I could add something.
“And 30 minutes into it I added that 94-96 bpm (beats per minute) range, which is old school hip-hop, and I grabbed the Honey Drippers’ ‘Impeach the President’ and had them throw that rock beat there. It was, ‘Oh my God, I’m home.’ I played with that hip-hop flavor and the Genie was born from the music.”
In a brilliant career that began over 30 years ago, what does Smith at age 50 want?
“I took a couple of years off. I guess I hit a ceiling in my life,” he said. “I was getting to the end of my wisdom of leading my family. I had a bit of collapse of my life and creation, and essentially went to study and journey spiritually. ‘Aladdin’ was my first sort of coming back in to see if my heart is in this kind of performing.”
He discovered, “Everything starts with, What am I saying to the world? What does this say to the human family? Can I go and teach and preach these ideas in good conscience?
“Aladdin,” he said, “checks all those boxes. I love that the Genie has shackles. He has these spectacular powers, but he’s a prisoner of his spiritual fate — and that’s how I felt with Will Smith.
“These last couple of years I found freedom with Will Smith and now I’m feeling comfortable being me.”