If there was an Oscar for Best Performance on Social Media – and there probably will be one day – the inaugural winner should be Will Smith. He is so f-cking good at this and…so repeatedly good at it. You remember his #InMyFeelings challenge. All the times he punks his kids. His willingness to be the fool. Will and his social media team should be giving lessons, or selling lessons, to so many people in Hollywood. Because this is work. Really, really excellent work.
Here’s the latest from Will, released a couple of days ago on YouTube, giving us some Hollywood Sliding Doors – he could have been Neo inThe Matrix.It was supposed to be him and Val Kilmer as Morpheus and … find out why it ended up being Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne:
You see where the work is? There’s a LOT of work. It just doesn’t feel like work because it’s so hilarious and entertaining, but so much work went into this. Like the editing. This is a produced YouTube video that’s still feels grassroots and organic – not an easy balance to strike. Original animation is featured here but it’s not overly sophisticated. Note too that the audio isn’t top quality, which is fine – you can hear what’s being said clearly and the fact that it doesn’t sound like it’s been professionally mixed adds to the casual storytelling. None of that overpowers the star though, and I don’t mean Will but the story. He knows that the STORY is the draw. And, specifically all the little gossipy bits in the story. Like, sure, he’s not proud of doingWild Wild WestoverThe Matrixbut also? It was a sh-t pitch from the Wachowskis. So on top of all of this, what Will’s doing is also teaching us a work lesson: everybody, work on your pitch! Pitching is a skill! And pitches aren’t one size fits all. You don’t pitch to Will Smith like you do to Keanu Reeves.
That said, clearly that kind of high concept pitch, like the sh-t you say when you’re stoned, worked on Keanu Reeves and you see what Will just did there? He made me want to see that footage. Now I’m dying to watch video of the Wachowskis pitching Keanu. Will just gave Keanu Reeves some homework. Now, whenever Keanu’s lined up to do press, someone’s going to ask him about this. So there’s another box that Will just checked: he gave us a sequel.
