safe roles to me are ones where the actor can just show up on set and telephone it in. ones that dont require really leaving the comfort zone. basically kevin harts entire catalog lol.

he could have just done a bunch of 'will smith inc' themed action and comedy movies for the rest of his life and been set. thats the safe route.

it seems like will really chases 'award bait' type roles. and they arent necessarily safe because theyve required him to exhibit actual acting ability, push a different perception of him (based on how people perceive him in real life), nail emulations of known people (ali, richard williams, etc), and so on. so a pretty distinct bar is set that he has to get judged on based on whether he met or not. thats not what i think of as safe.

it looks moreso like he desperately wants people to recognize him as an actual artist in this field and he takes a lot of roles based on whether he believes they will help him accomplish that.

even if you look at the movie where he was writing letters to the various emotions or whatever (cant remember the name and was never interested in watching it lol). i think that role choice perfectly highlights what im saying and his motivation for picking such a role (regardless of how the final product was received lol).