It’s the film that debuted on No. 1 on the Netflix’s top films. If you watched J-Lo’s latest apocalyptic thriller on the streaming site, you might be wondering who Smith is voiced by in Atlas.
The movie stars Jennifer Lopez as Atlas Shepherd, an analyst who is wary of Artificial Intelligence. When the world is taken over by Harlan (Simu Liu), an Artificial Intelligence from Atlas’ complicated past, Atlas reluctantly teams up with Smith, an AI voice who helps her in her mech suit. Throughout the movie, both Atlas and Smith quip in their sassiness towards each other since he’s programmed to adapt to the user’s behavior. Ultimately, their trust in each other helps them save the world.
Smith’s voice is calm and collected most of the time, but his trusting bond with Atlas helps indulge the story into the action-packed adventure it is.
“Smith is only present as a voice inside Atlas’ suit and as the film progresses, the two learn to work together. The heart of Atlas is really about trust and how hard it is to trust people,” director Brad Peyton said at Netflix’s Tudum event. “It’s a reminder of how we have to have deep and meaningful relationships in our lives, in one way, shape or form. You can’t do it all by yourself; you have to choose to trust people at a certain point and let them in.”
Though his voice not be too familiar, here’s who plays Smith in Atlas.
Who voices Smith in Atlas?
Actor Gregory James Cohan voices Smith in Atlas. You might have seen him in The VelociPastor, The American Society of Magical Negroes, and American Horror Stories. Cohan wasn’t going to voice Smith at first, but with some movie magic, he was able to get the role.
“Initially, we wanted a temporary voice actor to sit in the booth and talk opposite Jen for all the dialogue, just to have someone present, and then we’d worry about casting later,” Peyton told Netflix’s Tudum. “So Greg came in, he read the entire movie, and the more we heard him doing Smith, the more we realized he’s perfect for the role.”
However, we see more than just Cohan’s voice in the movie. “He also appears physically as the pilot of the DHIIB, the ship that Sterling K. Brown’s character runs,” Peyton explained. “He also voices one of the soldiers in the opening of the movie. So, Greg technically has three roles in this movie.”
Sterling K. Brown also dished that Jennifer Lopez ran her lines with her husband Ben Affleck.”Every once in a while, Ben would read the lines for Smith,” the American Fiction star told Entertainment Weekly. “And I think the newlyweds, still very much in love, I think she just wanted to hear his voice. And so sometimes, the reactions that you got from her were because she was listening to her husband’s voice.”
