I, Robot: Alan Tudyk says he was dropped from publicity tour after scoring higher than Will Smith in test screenings
While appearing on Toon’d In with Jim Cummings, Alan Tudyk revealed that he was cut from the I, Robot publicity tour after test screenings showed his character scored higher with audiences than the film’s star, Will Smith.
“A lot of people did not know I did Sonny the Robot in ‘I, Robot,’ and there is a reason,” Tudyk said. “They were doing test audiences for the movie and they score the characters in this kind of test screening. I got word back: ‘Alan, you are testing higher than Will Smith.’ And then I was gone. I was done. There was no publicity and my name was not mentioned.“
The actor continued, “I was so shocked. I was like, ‘Wait, nobody is going to know I’m in it!’ I put a lot into [that performance]. I had to move like a robot. At the time I was very upset.“
Tudyk provided Sonny’s voice and motion-capture performance in the film. At the time, motion-capture performance was still a relatively new phenomenon in Hollywood, but audiences had gotten a taste of it thanks to Ahmed Best as Jar Jar Binks in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and Andy Serkis as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Tudyk would return to motion-capture years later as K-2SO in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and would reprise the role in the second season of Andor.
It’s been a long time since I watched I, Robot, but I do recall Sonny being a highlight; maybe those test audiences were onto something. While Tudyk may have been absent from I, Robot’s publicity tour in 2004, he still managed to make his mark on audiences just a month earlier, stealing scenes as Steve the Pirate in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.
Tudyk can now be heard lending his voice to another robot. He voices Robot #4 in James Gunn’s Superman movie, one of the Man of Steel’s many robotic helpers at the Fortress of Solitude. The film is still playing in theaters, so be sure to check out the (very different) reviews from our own Chris Bumbray and Tyler Nichols, and don’t forget to let us know what you thought of the film as well!
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