When Will Smith meets Ang Lee in Hollywood sf

Abstract

This article critically examines how Gemini Man (2019) incorporates director Ang Lee’s cinematic aesthetics and Will Smith’s star persona to present a nuanced representation of empowered crossover Blackness. In this film, Smith’s commanding status as a Black lead exceeds the typical constraints of social and spatial mobility (a relative rarity in Hollywood production). However, Gemini Man’s adoption of sf generic conventions and prevalent ideological narratives ironically neutralizes this momentum and, instead, reveals the precariousness that Asian and Black American filmmakers experience navigating the entertainment industry’s unequal decision-making, especially as it seeks maximized crossover appeal to attract wider audiences worldwide. This article explores how the film’s artistic expression not only illustrates ongoing ideological and identity negotiations within the racialized sf genre, especially concerning the representation of Black experiences, but also illuminates filmmakers’ challenges when collaborating with major studios in Hollywood’s profit-driven, racially-determined global marketplace.