The Film That Changed Will Smith’s Career Forever Is Now on Netflix

Needless to say, we all know what King Richard is associated with nowadays, and it’s not for being a well-received sports biopic nominated for a handful of Academy Awards. If it weren’t for Will Smith‘s long-awaited award for Best Actor at the 94th Academy Awards, Reinaldo Marcus Green‘s film about tennis coach and celebrity father Richard Williams would likely be lost to time, especially since it was released during the industry’s hazy transitional phase back to theaters amid the pandemic. The image that comes to mind when the film’s title is uttered is Smith smacking presenter Chris Rock in the face on that fateful night on March 27th, 2022.

The infamous slap cast a strange cloud over Smith’s career and King Richard. Four years since its release, the film, now streaming on Netflix, is worthy of reconsideration now that the media circus has tempered. Removed from all the controversy, King Richard is the kind of throwback movie audiences desire. If you want to interpret the film through the lens of Smith’s public standing, you’ll learn a lot about the movie star through its subject.

‘King Richard’ is a Throwback Sports Movie and an Acting Showcase for Will Smith

The only thing left blank on Will Smith’s resume was an Academy Award. After achieving great success as a musician and sitcom star, he effortlessly transitioned to being America’s #1 movie star, becoming a box office titan every summer from the mid-1990s through the end of the 2000s. In films like Ali and The Pursuit of Happyness, which garnered his first of two Oscar nods, Smith was also celebrated as a gifted dramatic actor. King Richard, which he also produced, was positioned as his victory lap—a career achievement for three decades of entertaining the masses and breaking new ground as a Black creative artist.

However, the 2021 film should be observed without the baggage of Smith’s career arc and the slap, as the product itself is a no-frills, classic sports drama that appeals to a four-quadrant audience. In a familiar maneuver to win an Oscar, Smith subverts his infectious charm and likability by playing the notoriously demanding Richard Williams, the father and coach of future tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams. The film tracks Richard tirelessly training his daughters and propping them up as the athletes of their generation, despite financial shortcomings. His personal relationship with Venus, Serena, and his wife Brandy (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) becomes strained as his determination for success intensifies.

Engaging and accessible while also carefully observed as a character piece, King Richard is a relic of a bygone era of middlebrow dramas working as crowd-pleasing blockbusters. Unfortunately, the film being released by Warner Bros. during its day-and-date distribution strategy compromised its box office potential. The strong financial performance of Bad Boys: Ride or Die in 2024 proves that audiences have not sworn off the Fresh Prince due to The Slap. While it’s not his most electric or revelatory performance, Smith’s turn as the titular character is peak movie star magic, turning an inherently unlikable character into a magnetic presence.

Will Smith’s Connection to The Story of ‘King Richard’

King Richard, methodically paced and tonally precise, feels like a fresh take on the inspirational sports biopic despite featuring many of its hallmarks. Luckily, the film never veers too far into theatrics and melodrama. It also helps that the film is shot by Oscar-winning DP Robert Elswit, which explains why the film’s dialogue scenes and tennis sequences are handsomely crafted.

Conventional thinking by studios would be to chronicle the rise of the Williams sisters on their way to the top of the tennis world, but the film, executive-produced by Venus and Serena, shifts its focus to their mercurial father. Everyone knows the fate of the women on the court, and their unmatched levels of success as professional athletes offer little tension for a narrative film, devolving into a reading of a Wikipedia page. By centering the story around the troubled patriarch, King Richard operates as a family drama and a story of balancing home life with an insatiable drive for greatness first and foremost.

Will Smith’s Oscar may be overshadowed by his viral moment earlier in the ceremony, but it makes the text of King Richard retroactively more fascinating, for better or worse. Throughout his long and prosperous career, Smith seemingly carried himself like a professional athlete, wanting to be at the top of his game in music, television, and movies, with the latter medium allowing him to measure success via box office gross. For Richard Williams, life is a constant competition, which alienates him from everyone who does not participate in his game. For Smith, who was favored to win Best Actor that fateful night, the pressure was arguably too intense, causing him to commit an embarrassing PR nightmare. Beyond just being exploitable for awards acclaim, Will Smith certainly felt a kinship with Richard Williams, and this sentimental attachment to a deeply complex individual is the power behind King Richard.

King Richard is now available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.