‘AW, HELL NAW!’

Will Smith Talks Playing Obama on ‘Carpool Karaoke’

The Fresh Prince himself raps with James Corden and discusses the possibility of playing President Obama on screen.

James Corden’s stand-alone Carpool Karaoke series has arrived with one hell of a first guest: Will Smith.

The full 20-minute episode—including the part where they rap the theme from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Ai is only available to Apple Music subscribers, but Corden was kind enough to share nearly half of that on The Late Late Show’s YouTube channel.

In addition to a marching band-enhanced version of “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It” and a fired-up rendition of “Boom! Shake the Room,” the episode finds Smith revealing to Corden whether he has ever had any serious discussions about playing President Barack Obama in a biopic.

“Yes,” Smith says. “I’ve talked to Barack about it. He told me that he felt confident that I had the ears for the role.”

At Corden’s insistence, Smith imagined what it would be like to insert one of his famous catchphrases—“Aw, hell naw!”—into scenes as the president. “When they come into the Situation Room, ‘Aw, hell naw!’”  

At 48 years old, Smith is just about the same age now as Obama was when he took office. So if he’s going to take on the role, he’d better do it soon.

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Matt WilsteinSenior Editor

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