Hollywood Popular Artists

May 30th 2013, 14:51

By Tara Fowler

After Memorial Day's record-breaking weekend, how will proven summer star Will Smith (alongside his son Jaden — and, erm, M. Night Shyamalan, but let's forget about that) fare at the box office this coming weekend? Only time will tell, but until then, here are six facts you may not have known about the Fresh Prince.

1) He turned down the role of Neo in "The Matrix": ...To play James West in "Wild Wild West." Smith has since said that this is the decision he most regrets in his entire career. (Can't really argue with that.)

2) He can solve a Rubik's Cube in just 55 seconds: See for yourself:

He's also solved them on screen on "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air" and "The Pursuit of Happiness."

3) Steven Spielberg phoned him up personally to convince him to do "Men In Black": While Smith was (mostly) in the buff. "I was sitting in my underwear and you can't talk to Steven Spielberg your underwear, so I went and got changed," Smith said in 2002. "He sent a helicopter for me and it landed right near to his house. I thought, 'I don't care what this movie is, I'm doing it.'"

4) He got his nickname from one of his teachers: Who dubbed him "Prince" thanks to "his regal bearing and ability to talk his way out of trouble."

5) He's really good at math: "If I weren't a musician/actor, I'd be a computer engineer," Smith has said. "I was always good at math. I probably would have been the guy who invented the remote control if I'd been around then." And if he'd gone to college, Smith would likely have attended MIT. "I had pretty high SAT scores and they needed black kids, so I probably could have gotten in," Smith told Reader's Digest in 2006. "But I had no intention of going to college."

6) He's still got moves: As his fabulous appearance on The Graham Norton Show proves. Hey Netflix, I think it's time to bring back "The Fresh Prince"!

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