Alan Tudyk says he got dropped from “I, Robot” publicity after his motion capture performance tested higher than Will Smith during test screenings.

Alan Tudyk recently appeared on the “Toon’d In with Jim Cummings” podcast and claimed he was dropped from the marketing of 2004’s “I, Robot” after it was discovered in test screenings that he was actually testing higher with audiences than leading man Will Smith. Tudyk appeared in the film as the robot Sonny via motion capture and voice acting. Axing him from the movie’s publicity meant there were (and still are) people who have no idea he starred in the movie, the actor said.

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“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.”

 

“I was so shocked,” he continued. “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.

“I, Robot,” directed by Alex Proyas, stars Smith as a Chicago police detective in 2035 investigating the alleged suicide of the founder of a robotics company. The corporation’s highly intelligent robots are utilized for public service jobs, but Smith’s detective is convinced one of these robots, Tudyk’s Sonny, murdered the founder. The supporting cast includes Bridget Moynahan, Bruce Greenwood, James Cromwell and Chi McBride.

Outside of Jar Jar Binks in the “Star Wars” prequels and Gollum in “The Lord of the Rings” movies, motion capture technology and performances were still relatively new in Hollywood when Tudyk played Sonny in “I, Robot.” He would go on to use the technology again years later when he played the droid K-2SO in the “Star Wars” movie “Rogue One,” a role he reprised in the Disney+ prequel series “Andor.”