Men in Black Almost Didn’t Land One of Its Big Stars

It took Steven Spielberg and a chopper to get Will Smith to star in the sci-fi classic Men in Black.

Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black
Photo: Columbia Pictures/Getty Images

You know the difference between Vincent D’Onofrio.

And yet, it took one of the most powerful men in Hollywood to get Will Smith on board. The rapper-turned-actor was a known quality during the long pre-production of Men in Black, having transitioned from sitcom star of Barry Sonnenfeld-directed adaptation of a little-known comic book, Smith decided to .

Speaking with comedian Kevin Hart on the talk show Hart to Heart, Smith itted his trepidation with g on to the film stemmed from the success of Independence Day. “I kind of understood Men in Black, but … I didn’t want to make two alien movies back to back,” he recalled. So what did it take to get Smith on board?

Steven Spielberg sent a helicopter for me,” Smith declared. As the producer of Men in Black, Spielberg really wanted Smith for the part. So he flew Smith to his home, where he served the actor lemonade with carbonated water (“But you had to act like you had it before,” Hart quipped) and asked a direct question.

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“Tell me why you don’t want to be in my movie…” Spielberg asked Smith, with an intentional pause after the command. “He put the ellipses at the end,” Smith pointed out. “[I]f he had continued, he woulda said, ‘Joker, you know I made Jaws, right? You know I made E.T?’.”

Of course, Smith signed on and added another hit to his amazing ’90s filmography, establishing himself as one of the era’s greatest stars. But that did not make for smooth sailing for the rest of the shoot.

Writer Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, has been very open about Jones’s displeasure during filming Men in Black, stemming partially from Smith’s presence in the film. In a Twitter thread from 2019, Solomon claimed that Jones felt threatened by the younger actor upstaging him and struggled with the idea of a sci-fi comedy hybrid.

Despite these difficulties behind the scenes, Smith and Jones achieved perfect chemistry on-screen. Sonnenfeld and his collaborators managed to make a film in which both leads felt they were in charge, and both get upstaged by the other at different , creating classic buddy comedy energy. For Jones, it took finally understanding what movie he was in. For Smith, it was a helicopter ride from one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. Whatever the method, the result was clear: they made that movie look so, so good.

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