“I was thinking about wearing Hancock’s uniform but it was a little tight and I thought it would be rather embarrassing.”

Fighting the temptation to don the all-leather outfit that he wears in his new superhero movie, superstar Will Smith nevertheless was looking superfly when he touched down in London’s Leicester Square for the UK premiere of Hancock.

“I thought I’d just keep it simple and sexy,” he said.

Hancock finds the former Fresh Prince playing a down-and-out metahuman who has a reputation for being something of an a-hole and subsequently employs Jason Bateman’s PR expert to turn his fortunes around.

“Hancock is a bit of a drinker, he’s kind of an alcoholic superhero,” said Smith. “It’s a really different kind of movie. We worked really hard on creating something different so that when you guys go to the movies, we wanted to give you something that was special... you don’t know what’s going to hit you.”

Following the end-of-the-world histrionics of I Am Legend, Smith is now chancing his arm with this fantastical flick, was he able to draw on any of his real-life experiences for the role?

“Well, my life is exactly how I want it, so I couldn’t even imagine wanting a super power,” he said. “And you guys tend to treat me pretty good so I haven’t had a huge necessity to employ a PR. We’ve dodged a bullet or two (in the past), but I’ve never needed a PR like Hancock has. Thankfully.”

Also joining Will on the red carpet were the movie’s director Peter Berg and co-stars Charlize Theron and Empire favourite Jason Bateman.

“What made me want to do the movie? Well, it was the money,” said Bateman. “No it was this guy over here, it was Will Smith who made me want to make this movie.”

Bateman, who is seeing his star power rapidly ascending, thanks to roles in movie like Juno and Berg’s previous movie The Kingdom, is attached to a number of exciting upcoming projects, including the American remake of hit BBC mini-series State Of Play (“We finished on that, it went very, very well and I think it’s going to be outstanding.”) and a small role in Ricky Gervais’ directorial debut This Side Of The Truth (“It was just a cameo but it was a lot of fun though. Ricky’s a great guy, very funny”). And then, of course, there’s the potential movie adaptation of Bateman’s popular comedy Arrested Development: “Well, there isn’t a movie planned yet, but they’re trying to make it a reality. Of course, if they made it, I’d love to work on it.”