Jada Pinkett Smith, uncredited party guest in Men in Black 3 and Will Smith's wife, made headlines by demanding a boycott of the Oscars. Because they're so racist for not wrongly nominating people based on race, instead of acting ability. Joining her is Spike Lee, demanding affirmative action, even though his entire career is affirmative action.
Was Jada Pinkett Smith expecting an Oscar nomination for voicing a hippo in Madagascar 3? Or, more likely, she thought her husband deserved one for his terrible accent in Concussion.
Concussion is a movie starring Will Smith's terrible fake African accent with the same exact script as The Insider and a dozen other "expose" movies with the NFL swapped in for the Evil Giant Corporation of the Month.
But it's the only movie that has Will Smith's fake accent and so it deserves to be nominated for something. How bad is Will Smith at a Nigerian accent? He sounds like Eddie Murphy in Coming to America.
Will Smith and his Nigerian accent have also drawn the ire of Nigerians on Twitter.
“The Grammy award winner tried to pull a Nigerian accent and failed woefully at it,” writes Tomilola for 360nobs. “We are not sure how hard it was for the Producers to cast a Nigerian (seeing as there are numerous talented Nigerians in Hollywood) in this role but what we are sure of is it is quite hard for Will Smith to understand that we do not sound like a caveman coming to America for the first time,” she added.
“Hollywood created an accent for ‘Africans’ which they use whether the person is Liberian, Nigerian or Rwandan. Will Smith learnt it well,” tweeted Nigerian satiristElnathan– who also shared his own take on the Concussion trailer.
The real Dr Omalu has a throaty, froggy voice, which Smith doesn’t even try to put forth in his performance. Instead, he offers a pan-African slurry that sounds a bit like an In Living Color sketch gone wrong. When Smith as Dr Omalu screams, “Tell da troof!” in the trailer, your heart is supposed to soar at the mere thought of such a noble figure standing up for what’s right against the evil NFL. I actually laughed through the rest of the trailer, then ran around my house saying “Tell da troof!” until I tripped on a throw rug.
An actor with a talent for mimicry might have pulled this off, but the producers of Concussion didn’t cast that person. They cast Will Smith, he of Seven Pounds andHancock. It’s as if his voice went through one of those novelty masks at Toys ‘R’ Us, except this one isn’t for Darth Vader, it’s for Desmond Tutu.
Yes, I know that Desmond Tutu is from South Africa, not Nigeria. That’s how bad Smith’s accent is in Concussion.
But it would be racist to deny the Fresh Prince an Oscar nod for a retread of a movie in which he couldn't bother taking the time to learn how to do a Nigerian accent.
Tell da troof, talent doesn't matter. PC does. So why not just reserve an Oscar for most diverse actor with the worst possible accent. Last year it should have been David Oyelowo, who ironically is Nigerian, trying to play Martin Luther King. This year it can be Will Smith trying to play a Nigerian badly. Next year, Will Smith can play Martin Luther King with a terrible Nigerian accent. Because why not.