It was neither his favorite film nor one of the best of his career, but Will Smith still remember ‘Ali’ for the painful neck injury that he suffered while filming it. It was about one biographical film of the legendary boxer Muhammad Ali/Cassius Clay Jr.and being a film about a contact sport like boxing, the possibility of the actor suffering real harm was there. Unfortunately, the risk became reality, and a filming partner punched him in the head in such an inopportune manner that Smith suffered a terrible pain. Fortunately there were no consequences and he was just scared.
This is how Will Smith’s injury occurred while filming ‘Ali’, a boxing movie
In an interview on the YouTube channel First We Feast that he recently attended, Will Smith has spoken at length about his extensive career in film and television. One of the topics discussed has been How he suffered a painful neck injury while filming ‘Ali’ (2001) because of a mistimed punch to the head by Michael Benntwho played boxer Sonny Liston in the film.
Will Smith summed up the incident with a “was “the most painful blow I have suffered while shooting a film”. He told the anecdote in the following way: he was with his trainer and the actor Michael Bennt, who played another boxer. According to Will Smith, his trainer was instructing him to adopt a fighting stance, with his spine thrown forward, something he did suddenly. But unfortunately, Bennt instinctively hit him with an unexpected right hand on the top of the head. by the sudden change in pose.
The blow was delivered between the frontal and parietal part of Will Smith’s skulland managed to “compress” him and his neck towards his bodywhich caused the actor a pain that he defines as “electric shock”. “I felt an electrifying sensation go down towards my arms and towards my elbows.. “It left me with an electric taste”, he declared. But as he related, luckily everything was a scare and in an unfortunate incident that only caused a minor injury and it did not cause major damage, since said pain ended up dissipating.
Its about umpteenth example of accidents on film sets that can be avoided by indicating and receiving clear and precise instructions. As we mentioned, luckily the issue did not escalate and has remained as one more anecdote in the career of Will Smith, who in 2024 has returned to the big screen with ‘Bad Boys 4’.
What was ‘Ali’ about? Was it a good movie?
‘Ali’ was a 2001 film directed by Michael Mann. It was about one biopic of Cassius Clay Jr.the legendary boxer who changed his name to Muhammad Ali when he converted to Islam. It starred Will Smith as Ali, and was accompanied by a cast of luxury supporting cast such as Jamie Foxx, Jon Voight and Jeffrey Wright. The film showed key points in Ali’s real life, such as his conversion to the Islamic religion, his refusal to participate in the Vietnam War and his subsequent imprisonment, his relationship with Malcolm his long career as a boxer.
The movie was well received by criticsbut It was a box office failure.. It had an estimated budget of between 107 and 118 million dollars, but it only managed to raise 87 million, so It didn’t even cover its costs.. On aggregators such as Rotten Tomatoes it has scores of 68% from critics and 65% from the public, while on IMDb it has a score of 6.7/10.
Will Smith’s performance was highly praisedand At the 2002 Oscars he was nominated for Best Actor. for his role in ‘Ali’. The statuette finally went to Denzel Washington for his role as Detective Alonzo Harris in ‘Training Day’. Smith would have to wait two more decades to obtain his well-deserved recognition as an actor, since At the 2022 gala he got his long-awaited award for Best Actor for his role in ‘King Richard’.
