Will Smith reveals Steven Spielberg sent a helicopter to get him to star in ‘Men in Black’ after he showed disinterest
To begin with, Will Smith was not interested in doing the movie and it took the involvement of veteran filmmaker Steven Spielberg to convince him.
Men in Black series was one of the most successful projects of Will Smith's acting career. However, to begin with Smith was not interested in doing the movie and it took the involvement of veteran filmmaker Steven Spielberg to convince him.
In an interaction on the latest episode of Kevin Hart’s "Hart to Heart" show on Peacock, Smith revealed that initially he didn't want to do MIB as he had just finished the filming of alien themed movie "Independence Day". It was executive producer of the movie, Spielberg who eventually convinced him to star in Men In Black.
“Steven Spielberg sent a helicopter for me. I was in New York. [He sent it] to talk to me. It landed at his house, and he had me at hello,” recalled Smith.
“Yeah, you can’t say no after you get off the helicopter,” opined Hart after Smith's revelation.
“[I] get off the helicopter at his house, and it was the first time I ever had lemonade with carbonated water. You can’t say no to that,” added Smith.
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Smith shared how Spielberg was very straightforward in asking him reasons for not being interested in doing the movie.
“He said the coldest s—. He said, ‘Tell me, tell me why you don’t want to make my movie… And he put the ellipsis at the end, it was the dot, dot, dot ‘Tell me why you don’t want to make my movie?,’” shared Smith.
“If he had continued, he would have said, ‘Joker, you know I made Jaws, right? You know I made E.T,'” said Smith.
After accepting the movie, Smith starred as Agent J in Men in Black and its two subsequent sequels Men in Black 2 (2002) and Men in Black 3 (2012) alongside Tommy Lee Jones.
