BD Horror News - 'I Am Legend', Will Smith Talks New York and Loneliness

Hitting theaters this Friday with much anticipation is Warner Bros. I Am Legend (trailer), an adaptation directed by Francis Lawrence. Today we posted some bits from a short chat we had with star Will Smith, who plays Robert Neveille - the last man on Earth. read on for the skinny. Robert Neville is a brilliant scientist, but even he could not contain the terrible virus that was unstoppable, incurable�and manmade. Somehow immune, Neville is now the last human survivor in what is left of New York City�and maybe the world.

This past week B-D stringer Lindsay Berg had the chance to chat with I AM LEGEND star Will Smith about his role as Robert Neveille, the last man on Earth. Most of the film was shot in New York, which was pretty difficult. �Shooting in New York on something of this level is difficult,� he continues, �percentage wise, the most amount of middle fingers I had received. I was starting to think F-U was my name.� All jokes aside shooting in New York City helped create the desolate feeling of I AM LEGEND. �You have never actually seen an empty shot of New York City� it was chilling to walk down the middle of 5th avenue, [it] created such a creepy energy, [an] eerie icky kind of feeling,� he continues, �[It] absolutely created something that you can not do with green screen or with another city.�

Creating the character was a great experience for Smith, who used the opportunity to explore himself. �It was such a wonderful exploration of myself� you get in a situation where other people can�t create a stimulus, so you have to do the stimulus and the response,� he continues, �in order to prepare, we sat with former POWs and people that have been in solitary confinement [and the] first thing is that you will not survive without a schedule. You must plan things like cleaning your nails, you have to do it because it�s on your schedule.� In the end his character has only one truth to accept, �The truth for Robert Neville didn�t matter, the only thing that mattered was what he saw and what he believed.�

This forced him to decide if he would do what Robert Neville did in the film. �What was there to live for? I like to believe that I would put my chest up and step forward and continue to fight for humanity, but I feel like I would probably look for a bridge� you really don�t want to be tested.�

You can check out I AM LEGEND in theaters and in IMAX this Friday.