His career could've looked different if he hadn’t taken advice from a few industry pals.
His career could've looked different if he hadn’t taken advice from a few industry pals.
Will Smith’s career would have been a drastically different one if it were not for the advice he took from a few industry pals in the 1990s, reports Decider.
Smith recently chatted to comedian and friend Kevin Hart on his Peacock talk series, Hart to Hart, about why he made the decision to star in Men in Black, as well as various other movies that helped catapult him into fame.
“I kind of understood Men in Black, but I didn’t want to make Men in Black,” he revealed to 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 asked what changed Smith’s mind, he replied, “Steven Spielberg sent a helicopter for me.”
In a state of disbelief, Hart called Smith’s bluff. “You’re a goddamn liar,” he replied.
Smith continued the story: “It landed at his house, and he had me at hello.”
He told Hart that Spielberg had served him carbonated lemonade while they chatted, which he had never had before. “You can’t say no to that, dude.”
Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith star in the film Men In Black. Photo / Getty
“[Spielberg] said the coldest s***,” Smith recalled. “He said, tell me why you don’t want to make my movie …” Smith then added that Spielberg didn’t direct the movie, but rather worked as an executive producer on the iconic sci-fi flick.
Smith joked, “He put the ellipses at the end [of the statement] … if he had continued, he woulda said, ‘Joker, you know I made Jaws, right? You know I made E.T.’”
The actor also thanked his longtime business partner and film producer James Lassiter, who picked out the iconic 90s film for Smith to feature in, as well as other classic films in Smith’s portfolio.
“He just had an eye. I didn’t want to make Pursuit of Happyness, I didn’t want to make Ali,” he shared.
“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 revealed to Hart.
Will Smith after he won the Oscar for Best Actor in his role as Serena and Venus Williams' father in King Richard. Photo / AP
Smith gained two Oscar nominations for Best Actor because of Ali and Pursuit of Happyness.
Lassiter is credited as an executive producer on many of Smith’s big films, such as the 2020 Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Reunion, King Richard, Bad Boys for Life, and I Am Legend.
