He was in a couple of high-profile things in the 80s, like V and V: The Final Battle (that's where I immediately recognized him from), and I thought I remembered him being in Streets of Fire, but actually the movie I was thinking of was The Five Heartbeats.
And he was on HBO's Oz for a couple of years in the early 2000s, but he never really hit the big time like everyone else in this photo did.
Yeah he was and 5 Heartbeats is a Black classic. Will Smith may actually be the least famous in terms of acting in that photo at the time. He has the rap accolades and the first couple seasons of Fresh Prince there, but he is still a couple years out from Bad Boys/Independence Day/Men in Black really making him a megastar.
He was never as mainstream as the others in the photo but The 5 Heartbeats made him Black royalty. Super popular movie in the 90's and the soundtrack was as well. Wedding playlists in the 90's always had a couple of the tracks.
Complete nitpick, but Will is replacing Wesley. Sam Jackson is just inserted.
It is kinda funny seeing Will Smith squished into the space of a man he's 5 inches taller than.
Look at the original picture with Fishburne, Wright, Wesley, and Denzel.
Now look at the picture you posted.
Notice how in your picture that you claim was taken separately Fishburne, Wright, Wesley, and Denzel all have the EXACT SAME facial expressions/pose from the original picture?
😂 with Denzel and Laurence in EXACTLY the same pose and facial expression, ok. Also Eddie Murphy is notoriously short and Will Smith pretty tall, it’s nonsense.
Eddie looks too old. Laurence looks too young. And Will is 6’+ but either crouching down or sitting on something which is weird for the placement since Eddie is like 5’9” or something
And it’s just odd seeing all of these people you normally see individually together in one shot.
[edit: yup, that’s what Eddie looked like around Haunted Mansion in the early 2000s, not in 94 which was around the time of Beverly Hills Cop 3]
It's a trend now on social media where you see a picture of a ton of celebs in one picture in someones backyard to make it seem like some candid shot or something. Lots of people fall for it so that gets a lot of activity on the idiot who posted its account.
I don’t think it looks fake, but none of them look like they’re at the same sort of event so it sort of feels like they were pulled from different shots.
This photo looks authentic rather than AI‑generated. It features six well‑known actors — Laurence Fishburne, Eddie Murphy, Will Smith, Denzel Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, and possibly another guest — at what appears to be a real event from the late 1980s or early 1990s.
The lighting, texture, and natural facial details are consistent with film photography of that era, not the smooth or overly uniform look typical of AI composites. There are no visible artifacts, mismatched proportions, or unnatural blending that would suggest synthetic generation.
So what’s with the additional photo posted above in the comments where Will Smith and Samuel L are not in the photo at all and Wesley Snipes IS, Eddie has become someone else and the others are in exactly the same position?
That one is supposed to be the original according to the poster, so the one you’re referring to would be not necessarily AI, but photoshopped/edited. Normally I would say well, they were all there at the event and maybe one photo was taken of one grouping and later a second photo was taken of another grouping, but the actors repeated are in EXACTLY the same positions with the same facial expressions, which wouldn’t happen organically.
Take a look at it. ONE of these photos, is edited, but you’re saying then that it has to be the one with Snipes and minus Jackson and Smith.
Whateversnevermind above you posted the original picture.
Everyone is in the exact same pose, with the exact same facial expression and the exact same folds and positioning of their clothing/jewelry...so no, it is not just another photo taken at the same event.
It is the SAME photo, but this one is either Photoshopped or AI (or both).
Eddie Murphy looks significantly older (heavier face) than he did in 1994. And look at his eyebrow arches. They are way too big and too shiny and smooth (inconsistent with the rest of the photo).
I mean, you can literally do a search. That's what I did. It doesn't give any information as to where the picture was taken except it says it was early in their careers in the 1980's.
Ah, but even though it's real, AI still fooled people. They're so used to encountering AI images, that anything that looks a little "off", such as the unnatural flash lighting, makes them think it's AI.
It's not real, it's a composite image. Not Ai, but faked images have existed longer than AI has. Somebody else has posted the original. Will Smith has been inserted in the place of Wesley Snipes. Michael Wright was moved, and Eddie Murphy inserted in front of him. Samuel Jackson was added in the back.
In reality, Wesley Snipes is 5'9", while Will Smith is 6'2" and should be tied with Samuel Jackson as the tallest person in this photo, just barely taller than 6'1" Michael Wright, if it were real.
It is a very good edit though, and appears to have put some real thought into scaling the other insertions correctly.
Why are the heights off? Will is taller than most of these guys at like 6’2” and everyone looks taller including Sam Jackson which appears to be almost 7 feet tall?
I'm sure Will Smith (6'2") is leaning back on something like a bar stool. Sam Jackson is 6'2" as well, and wouldn't naturally be towering over anyone like this. Michael Wright (RIP) was also 6'2", with Denzel at 6'1", while Eddie Murphy is listed at 5'9" but when I met him years ago he seemed shorter.
Aside from this clearly being AI (their stares look unnatural, the lighting looks unnatural, that is clearly a copy of Eddie Murphy from 2021 latest, and the only references to this exact image when you Google Image Search are all IG and Facebook posts from 2024 onwards) Fake Laurence Fishburne look fine af here and out-serving everybody.
For those saying this is an artificial image... this is a real image that has been posthumously dubbed "Black Excellence in 1994" that celebrates the careers of those in this picture.
Having only really seen some of Denzel's post 2000 movies, my brain refuses to accept that that's Denzel. That mustache and looser hair than I'm used to just make him look SO different to me.
I am having a hard time figuring out who became most successful. They all have a real argument except for that one guy who I swear I have seen in a movie before but don't remember which. I think we can say that Laurence is the only one to not hit stratosphere fame.
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u/LMA73 1h ago
Never heard of this Michael Wright person before...