Alan Tudyk says he was removed from ‘I, Robot’ publicity after testing higher than Will Smith in screenings

Alan Tudyk has said he was excluded from the promotional campaign for I, Robot (2004) after audience test screenings reportedly rated his character higher than Will Smith’s. Tudyk made the comments during an interview on the “Toon’d In with Jim Cummings” podcast.

In the film, Tudyk portrayed the robot Sonny through motion capture and voice acting. “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.”

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He added, “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.”

Variety has reached out to Smith’s representative for comment.

Directed by Alex Proyas, I, Robot stars Smith as a Chicago police detective in 2035 investigating the death of a robotics company founder. The company’s intelligent robots perform public service roles, but Smith’s character suspects Sonny of murder. The cast also includes Bridget Moynahan, Bruce Greenwood, James Cromwell, and Chi McBride.

At the time of release, motion capture performances were still uncommon in Hollywood outside of roles such as Jar Jar Binks in Star Wars and Gollum in The Lord of the Rings. Tudyk later returned to the technology in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story as K-2SO, a role he reprised in the Disney+ series Andor.