Will Smith actually wasn’t a small-time actor by the point 1997 hit, as he’d starred within the fashionable NBC sequence The Contemporary Prince of Bel-Air for six seasons and constructed some main movie cred by Unhealthy Boys and Independence Day. That mentioned, there’s no query that Males in Black performed an integral function in cementing him as a Hollywood powerhouse, although that’s to not say he was all the time recreation to play Agent J. It really took convincing from director Steven Spielberg for Smith to agree to affix Males in Black, and a helicopter was concerned with making it occur.
Though Barry Sonnenfeld was sitting within the director’s chair for Males in Black (and the next two sequels), Spielberg was concerned as a producer, and one other key behind-the-scenes determine was James Lassiter, the chief music producer and Smith’s longtime enterprise companion. Whereas talking with comic Kevin Hart in an upcoming episode of his speak present Hart to Coronary heart, which is able to premiere to Peacock subscribers on August 3, Smith first defined why he initially wasn’t concerned with engaged on Males in Black:
[James Lassiter] picked Males in Black, I kinda understood Males in Black a bit of bit, however I didn’t need to make Males in Black. That was the following yr after Independence Day, so I didn’t need to make to alien motion pictures again to again.
1996 noticed Will Smith starring in Independence Day’s ensemble solid as Captain Steven Hiller, together with his notable costars together with Jeff Goldblum and Invoice Pullman, amongst many others. Even ignoring how critically and commercially profitable Independence Day was, it’s comprehensible that Smith didn’t need dive again into the alien pool so quickly afterwards at first. Nonetheless, then Steven Spielberg got here alongside to influence him in any other case, and it concerned sending a helicopter straight to Smith so he might meet with the filmmaker in individual. Because the actor recalled:
Steven Spielberg despatched a helicopter for me. … It landed at his home, and he had me at ‘hey.’ … And it was the primary time I’d ever had lemonade with carbonated water. I used to be like, ‘That is common.’ .. He flew me in, and he mentioned the coldest shit. He mentioned, ‘Inform me why you don’t need to make my film.’ And he’s the producer. And he put the ellipsis on the finish, it was the dot, dot, dot. ‘Inform me why you don’t need to make my film.’ It was the dot, dot, dot. If he had continued, he would’ve mentioned, ‘Joker, you understand I made Jaws, proper? You recognize I made E.T.’
On the time Will Smith and Steven Spielberg met, the latter had greater than 20 years of main cinematic credit below his belt, so yeah, that “ellipsis” was undoubtedly warranted. Granted, the previous nonetheless would have been inside his rights to show down Males in Black, however he thankfully modified his thoughts and agreed to star reverse Tommy Lee Jones as the most recent recruit to MIB. All these years later, Agent J stays considered one of Will Smith’s biggest performances, and he’d go on to reprise the character in 2002’s Males in Black 2 and 2012’s Males in Black 3. Nonetheless, I can’t assist however surprise how this assembly between Smith and Spielberg had gone if an everyday automobile had been despatched fairly than a helicopter.
In the event you’re now concerned with revisiting Males in Black, it may be streamed with an Amazon Prime Video subscription. Will Smith’s subsequent film, Unhealthy Boys 4, is slated for a June 14 drop on the 2024 launch schedule.
