The story goes that Will Smith, still riding high on a string of successful blockbusters like Men In Black and Independence Day, actually turned down the role of Neo in The Matrix, citing skepticism over the film’s bullet-time effects.
Instead, Smith opted to make Wild Wild West. It was his personal decision and we’re not ones to judge the career choices of one of the most marketable stars of his generation, but man did he drop the ball on that one. That’s almost as bad as agreeing to be in Hitch.
But apparently a Will Smith-starring Matrix isn’t the only thing humans living in alternate universe got to experience instead of us. According to new reports, INXS frontman Michael Hutchence had a role in the groundbreaking 1999 blockbuster.
According to Sydney entrepreneur Ron Creevey, who’s putting together a documentary about the last years of the late singer’s life, in addition to working on his burgeoning solo career, before taking his own life in 1997 Hutchence was working on an acting career.
Having famously starred in the 1986 cult film Dogs In Space, Creevey claims that before he died Hutchence had met with Pulp Fiction director Quentin Tarantino and acting legend Robert De Niro and had been cast in The Matrix, which was shot in Sydney.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Hutchence would’ve played an ally to Neo, the role passed over by Smith and eventually taken by Keanu Reeves. However, the supporting role was cut from the script after Hutchence took his own life.
“Michael had been cast in a fulltime role in The Matrix, his career going forward as an artist wasn’t just music, he was getting heavily into movies,” Creevey told News Corp. “His own family didn’t know that.”
“I call Michael ‘The squirrel’ because he hid s— everywhere. It’s been a bit like an international treasure hunt to find what he’s hidden. I developed his last roll of film only this week. I’ve got lyrics to songs he never recorded. No one knows what we have.”
