If you think of 2004’s I, Robot, Will Smith is likely the first person who comes to mind, and rightly so. It was definitely one of the bigger features the actor starred in during the 2000s, and some might even call it one of the best Will Smith movies. But I, Robot was also a big deal for Firefly’s Alan Tudyk, as he voiced and performed the friendly robot Sonny through motion capture. And yet, it was apparently because of his amazing performance as a robot that Tudyk barely got any attention when I, Robot was making the press rounds.
Tudyk divulged this information while speaking with the title host of the Toon’d In with Jim Cummings podcast. Although he’s known for a variety of movies and TV shows, including, but not limited to, Frozen, Zootopia, Rogue One, Resident Alien, Creature Commandos and the 2025 movie release Superman, Tudyk told Cummings that he still runs into people who aren’t aware he was in I, Robot. That’s not simply because we don’t see his face during the movie, with the actor sharing:
A lot of people did not know I did Sonny the Robot in I, Robot, and there is a reason. 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.
That is seriously wild. Alan Tudyk did his best job playing Sonny, the NS-5 robot created by James Cromwell’s Dr. Alfred Lanning who was capable of feeling emotions and a key component in the mystery of Lanning’s death that Will Smith’s Detective Del Spooner was brought in to solve. And yet, when the time came to promote I, Robot, Tudyk was told that the fact he was testing higher than Smith during these early screenings was enough to push him out of the press tour and not have his name brought up.
It’s unclear if 20th Century Fox was behind this decision or if it originated from Will Smith or someone on his team, but either way, Alan Tudyk was understandably disappointed to be told this. He continued:
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.
Motion capture performing was still in its relative infancy when Alan Tudyk was playing Sonny in I, Robot, with other notable examples from around that time including Jar Jar Binks in the Star Wars prequel trilogy and Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Mentioning Alan Tudyk, if not having him participate in the press tour, would have helped get this kind of unique performing on more people’s radars. Not to mention, Tudyk was an integral part of the cast just like Will Smith, James Cromwell, Bridget Moynahan and Bruce Greenwood, among others.
Obviously Alan Tudyk isn’t hurting for work these days, but the man deserves the recognition for all that effort he poured into bringing Sonny to life in I, Robot. The best we can do over two decades after its release is make sure those who are streaming I, Robot with a Hulu subscription or watching it some other way for the first time are aware of his contributions.
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