'King Richard' is a quintessential Will Smith movie, 30 years in the making

https://www.npr.org/2022/03/25/ [login to see] /king-richard-is-a-quintessential-will-smith-movie-30-years-in-the-making
Like plenty of other winners before him, if Will Smith earns his first Academy Award on Sunday, it will be as much – and probably more so – for his collective body of work over the years as it is for his turn in King Richard alone. Certainly, the role is an Oscar bingo card, as Smith is playing a real person (Richard Williams, ambitious father and coach of tennis stars Venus and Serena) with a conspicuous actor-ly challenge thrown in (Williams' southern drawl). And in case anyone doubts Smith's commitment to The Craft, he was more than willing to don prosthetics to fully "transform" into the role, before the idea was mercifully scrapped.