Will Smith and Men In Black go hand in hand, but it turns out the Fresh Prince wasn’t convinced in making the movies at all – until something changed.
The Men in Black franchise has been a staple in feel-good and funny films to watch with friends or family. Although relatively early on in his long-standing movie career, Will Smith’s debut in Men In Black came in 1997, before the sequels followed after, and cemented his role in Hollywood. But the actor opened up on how he didn’t want to make the first movie at all and wasn’t interested, and that pushed director Steven Spielberg to pull out all the stops to convince him otherwise.
Will Smith didn’t ‘want to make Men In Black’
After starring in 1996’s iconic Independence Day, where Will Smith pairs up with Jeff Goldblum to save Earth from an alien invasion, his manager told him about another film. Longtime business partner and former manager James Lassiter (JL) was pushing Will Smith to talk to Spielberg about his latest venture with Men In Black.
But Will was hesitant, he had just made Independence Day and didn’t want to have alien films “back to back” in fear it’d do worse damage. In a recent sit down with funny man Kevin Hart, Will admitted without an interjection from the ET director, we may not have seen him as James or Agent ‘J’ at all.
He told the comedian on the Hart to Heart show: “[JL] just, he just had an eye, I didn’t want to make Pursuit of Happyness. I didn’t want to make Ali…. And JL picked Men in Black. I kind of understood Men in Black a little bit, but I didn’t want to make Men in Black.”
“You can’t say no to that”
So, what changed his mind? A helicopter and Steven Spielberg’s boss move, actually.
Spielberg, who was an executive producer on Men In Black, used all his tricks to get Will Smith on board. He wanted to ensure the Fresh Prince of Bel Air star wouldn’t say no. Spielberg reached out to Will personally and asked him to meet up.
“Steven Spielberg sent a helicopter for me,” Will explained to Kevin.
“I was in New York. To talk to me…. It landed at his house. And he had me at hello…. And it was the first time I ever had lemonade with carbonated water. You can’t say no to that.”
Will laughed: “He said the coldest s**t.
“He said, ‘Tell me, tell me why you don’t want to make my movie. And he was the producer…. And he put the ellipsis at the end, it was the dot, dot, dot…. If he had continued, he would have said, ‘Joker, you know I made Jaws, right? You know I made E.T.’”
Turns out Spielberg is quite persuasive as the Emancipation actor said yes, became Agent J and the rest is history.
Men In Black went on to become a successful trilogy
Men In Black follows Agent J and senior Agent K, who monitor and control alien activity on Earth under the disguise of a secret organization. Agent K recruits J for the MiB, and they soon find themselves in the middle of a plot of an intergalactic maniac who is trying to steal a hidden power to destroy Earth.
The first film took in more than $589 million, followed by $441m for the sequel and then just shy of $625m for the third installment. It’s common for sequels to dip, and it’s clear that there was still a hunger for Agent J and his alien shenanigans with the second and third films with fans.
It was loved critically and commercially, raking in awards as well. It won the Kids’ Choice Award for Favorite Movie, Satellite Award for Best Motion Picture, Saturn Award for Best Music and an Academy Award for Best Makeup. The first movie has the highest rating of the bunch on Rotten Tomatoes, with a 91% score.
Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith both uttered they would ‘consider’ a Men In Black 4. In 2012, seven years before the International sequel came out, there were talks and rumors o a script floating around by Oren Uziel. However, it didn’t come in to play, and Sony Pictures has not confirmed any further developments with the original cast or storylines.
The fourth installment, many years later, featuring Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson was released in 2019, and took home $254 million. It’s pretty clear that fans still love the secret organization fighting off Earth’s demise under our noses.
Related Topics
MORE CELEBRITY STORIES
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pLHLnpmroaSuwaqwwaKrZ5ufonxzfJFsZmlwX2WEcMPIpaNmq52ewal5066pp52UYrGww81mpJ6mXZ67bq7LmpqkZZKqwW67zZ5km6ejqHquu9WeZJygkaO0prCMoaCsZZ2eu6V5yKeqrZmeqbm6ew%3D%3D