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The real Dr. Bennett Omalu (portrayed by Will Smith in Concussion [2015]) has a bold personality. On screen, Will Smith’s version of Omalu is substantially more reserved, controlled, and dialed back. In an interview with Collider, director Peter Landesman explained why the decision was made to depict Omalu in a more reserved way.

“Will can go ‘full Bennett’ any time he wants. Will is a remarkable tactician as an actor and an artist. He can dial him in and out like a radio. But yes—It’s too much. The real Bennett is charismatic and idiosyncratic and beautiful and great for five or ten minutes, but if you spend two hours with him it could be distracting. Will and I worked to modulate that performance.”

In other words, Bennett Omalu’s true personality is too big and exciting for the tone Concussion takes to approaching its material. Concussion is a serious dramatic piece, and while Smith’s Omalu maintains the projection of a believable, intelligent, and easily-sympathetic medical genius, much of the real man’s quirkiness was sacrificed for dramatic tone.

Will Smith said he was originally hesitant to take the role. Being a football dad, he didn’t want to be the guy responsible for saying that playing football is bad for you. Still, he accepted, and turned in a performance that has landed a Golden Globe nomination and has been hailed by many as his best performance to date. That success came from rising to the challenge of taking on a serious, modest role with a Nigerian accent—a departure from the type of roles Smith usually plays.

“This is probably the farthest role away from me that I’ve ever played, but it was exhilarating,” Smith told NPR. “You know, Will Smith with a Nigerian accent could go really, really wrong. ... But it was a high degree of difficulty, which for me was part of the pleasure of it. I’m 47 years old and there’s an experience as an actor when you actually get to put on someone’s life — you’re actually wearing another person for three or four or five months. So when you do that, you naturally take things away. And there’s a deep commitment to service and truth that Dr. Omalu has, and I like how it felt to wear that.”

Smith is a lifelong fan of the Philadelphia Eagles, and his son played football for several years, which the actor refers to as “some of the most beautiful time we’ve had together.” He makes it known that Concussion is not an anti-football movie, it is a pro-science and pro-information film. It’s about having all the details to make an informed decision that could have serious consequences.

He told ABC, “I didn’t know that repetitive head trauma from the game could cause long-term brain injury. You can make any decision that you want, but for me, as a parent, I was compelled to deliver this film to the world.”

To prepare for the role, Smith shadowed Omalu as he performed autopsies. “I went in there with him, and autopsy is aggressive. But I went and I watched him, and he sees himself as a deliverer of souls. He’s playing music. He’s talking to the person and he sort of sees himself as delivering the soul from this world to the next. As an actor, I was just ecstatic to find that depth of an interesting character. He is such a beautiful man. He’s just sweet and brilliant. He has eight degrees. He’s a man of science but paradoxically he’s a deeply spiritual man. He blends those two things, the science and spirituality into one gorgeous being.” Smith modified Omalu’s personality to his own vision of how those two facets of the man’s character blend together.

The public and critics aren’t the only ones pleased with Smith’s performance in Concussion. Omalu has found the dramatic adaptation of his story and the representation of himself a success. “As I stepped out of the theatre, I was proud I was American, to be honest with you,” he told Patheos. “Because that story — my story — can only happen in America.”

With a Golden Globe nomination under the belt, Smith may find an Academy Award nomination next. If so, it would be his third—and the third he’s received for portraying a real person. (Ali (2001) and The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) being the other two.)