Alan Tudyk has claimed he was removed from I, Robot ’s promotional trail after testing better than Will Smith in early screenings. Tudyk starred in the 2004 sci-fi thriller as Sonny, a robot accused of murder, and used motion-capture to pull off the CGI role.

Alan Tudyk reflected on his career and revealed that there’s a reason why not many people know he played Sonny in the 2004 sci-fi action film I, Robot. During an appearance on Toon’d In with Jimmy Cummings,

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.