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Believe it or not, Will Smith almost didn't take the lead role in Men in Black. It took a massive Steven Spielberg helicopter stunt to get him to do so.
During an appearance on Kevin Hart's Peacock show, Hart to Heart, Smith recalled his apprehension over taking the Men in Black role. Bear in mind, at this point, Smith was coming off a leading role in Independence Day and he wasn't interested in another alien-centric film. His manager at the time, James Lassiter, had another idea in mind.
“In the heyday, the 10 movies I made at the top of my career, [Lassiter] was choosing the films,” Smith revealed. “He just had an eye. I didn’t want to make Pursuit of Happyness. I didn’t want to make Ali. And [James] picked Men in Black. I kind of understood Men in Black a little bit but I didn’t want to make Men in Black. That was the next year after Independence Day — so I didn’t want to make two alien movies back to back.”
But turning down the role resulted in Steven Spielberg — whose company Amblin Entertainment produced the flick — sending a helicopter for him. “Steven Spielberg sent a helicopter for me to talk to me,” Smith recalled. “I was in New York. It landed at his house. And, like, he had me at hello. And it was the first time I ever had lemonade with carbonated water. You can’t say no to that.”
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As for what Spielberg said that drew Smith to the project, “He said the coldest shit.”
He continued, “He said, ‘Tell me why you don’t want to make my movie' — and he was the producer — and he put the ellipsis at the end, it was the dot, dot, dot. If he had continued, he would have said, ‘Joker, you know I made Jaws, right? You know I made E.T.?”
Will Smith took the role and the rest is history. The first Men in Black film grossed over $587 million worldwide, and the franchise at large has grossed over $1.9 billion worldwide (Smith starred in the first three films).
