Smith played Del Spooner, a detective prejudiced against robots in a future where the semi-autonomous androids are commonplace. Tudyk played Sonny, a robot who helps the cantanker

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.

Directed by Alex Proyas, “I, Robot” is about a Chicago police detective (Smith) who investigates the alleged suicide of a robotics company founder and becomes convinced that one of the robots, Sonny (Tudyk), murdered him.