Why Will Smith almost turned down iconic movie role

Why Will Smith almost turned down iconic movie role

Will Smith’s profession might have seemed very completely different if he hadn’t taken recommendation from a couple of key business gamers.

Smith sat down with comic Kevin Hart on his Peacock discuss collection, Hart to Hart, through which he defined why he finally determined to star in Men in Black and a lot of different movies that helped cement him into the film star he’s immediately.

“I kind of understood Men in Black, but I didn’t want to make Men in Black,” he recalled, per Entertainment Weekly. “That was the next year after Independence Day. So, I didn’t want to make two alien movies back to back.”

When Hart requested how he obtained satisfied to make the enduring sci-fi comedy, Smith replied, “Steven Spielberg sent a helicopter for me.”

Hilariously sufficient, Hart was shocked into silence. “You’re a goddamn liar,” he replied.

Smith continued explaining, “It landed at his house, and he had me at hello.” He added that Spielberg served him carbonated lemonade whereas they talked, which he had by no means had earlier than. “You can’t say no to that, dude.”

“[Spielberg] said the coldest s**t,” Smith recalled. “He said, tell me why you don’t want to make my movie …” Smith then identified that Spielberg didn’t direct the film, however reasonably served as an govt producer on the Barry Sonnenfield flick.

He joked, “He put the ellipses on the finish [of the statement] … if he had continued, he woulda stated, ‘Joker, you know I made Jaws, right? You know I made E.T.‘”

The actor also credited his longtime business partner and film producer James Lassiter with picking Men in Black for him to consider, amongst other classics from Smith’s filmography.

“He just had an eye. I didn’t want to make Pursuit of Happyness, I didn’t want to make Ali,” he stated.

“JL was the arbiter of taste. So in the heyday, the 10 movies I made at the top of my career, JL was choosing the films,” he informed Hart.

Smith went on to earn his first two Oscar nominations for Best Actor due to Ali and Pursuit of Happyness.

However, it wasn’t till 2022 that Smith would win within the class for portraying Venus and Serena Williams‘ father in King Richard.

Lassiter is credited as an executive producer of many of Smith’s initiatives, together with the 2020 Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Reunion, King Richard, Bad Boys for Life, and I Am Legend.

This story initially appeared on Decider and is republished right here with permission.

Source: www.news.com.au