Will Smith

Willard Christopher Smith Jr. was born on September 26, 1968 in West Philadelphia.  He was raised by a middle class family and attended a strict Catholic high school, despite his family's observation of the Baptist faith.  At 16, Smith met a DJ at a party. The pair became friends, and the rapping duo DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince was born.  The Fresh Prince rapped about teenage preoccupations in a clean, curse-free style that middle America found safe and entertaining. The pair's first single, "Girls Ain't Nothing But Trouble," was a hit in 1986. Their debut album Rock the House hit the Billboard Top 200, and made Smith a millionaire before the age of 18. His early success put any thoughts of attending college out of Smith's mind.  In 1988, DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince continued their success with the album He's The DJ, which won the first Grammy awarded in the rap category.



In 1990, Smith moved into acting with his role in the TV show The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air. In 1992 Smith crossed over into movies. He has been starring in popular films ever since.


Some of his popular films include:

Made in America - 1993

Six Degrees of Separation - 1993

Bad Boys - 199

Independence Day - 1996

Men in Black - 1997

Enemy of the State - 1998

Ali- 2001

I, Robot - 2004

Hitch - 2005

The Pursuit of Happyness - 2006

I Am Legend - 2007

Hancock - 2008

"The most powerful actor in Hollywood" - Newsweek, 2007

Independence Day is a 1996 American military science fiction disaster film about an alien invasion of Earth.  The narrative focuses on a group of people who converge in the Nevada Desert and, along with the rest of the human population, participate in a last-chance counterattack on July 4.  Will Smith plays USMC Captain Steven Hiller, who leads the counterattack against the aliens as pilot of the ship that destroys the alien's mothership.  Smith's roll in Independence Day is heroic and fearless.


In this scene, Hiller comes face-to-face with an alien and punches him square in the face. He then says, "Welcome to earth." Although Smith's character does not exactly portray the Brute Caricature in that he is targeting helpless victims and deserving punishment or death, his role, in a sense is destructive, animalistic and savage.  Contrary to the negatives of the Brute Caricature, Smith is heroic in his destructive ways because he takes down the enemy.

Hancock is a 2008 America superhero action comedy drama film that tells the story of a vigilante superhero, John Hancock (Smith) from Los Angeles whose reckless actions routinely cost the city millions of dollars. Eventually one person he saves, Ray Embrey (Bateman), makes it his mission to change Hancock's public image for the better.

Smith's alcoholic character has superpowers including flight, invulnerability, immortality and superhuman strength, which he uses to take down criminals in his city.  Although his character is heroic, he is destructive, animalistic and savage as the Brute Caricature portrays because he causes L.A. millions of dollars in damage and avoids his government issued fines. The city soon realizes after Hancock is locked up, that he is actually needed to fight crime in the area.

I Am Legend is a 2007 American post-apocalyptic science fiction horror film.  Will Smith's character, Robert Neville, is the last healthy and immune human in New York City and maybe the last human on Earth. A genetically engineered variant of the measles virus created by Dr. Alice Krippin, meant as a cure for cancer had mutated into a lethal strain. It spread throughout the world, killing 90% of humanity. The remaining  survivors became zombie-like creatures called "Darkseekers", that emerge after dusk to prey on those immune to the virus.  Throughout the movie, Smith attempts to save his own life and the life of his companion, his dog, by fighting off the infected mutants.

Although Smith does not fit the Brute Caricature exactly, in a sense, he is animalistic and savage when he fights off the infected mutants.