When Will Smith farted so badly that Men in Black had to evacuate set (Photo Credit – Instagram)
Advertisement
While Smith is celebrated for delivering box office hits, his role in the Men in Black franchise earned him critical acclaim. While the movie series became a global hit, some hilarious behind-the-scenes moments showed Smith’s charm beyond his performance.
Director Barry Sonnenfeld shared an insider fact about the Bad Boys actor in an appearance as a guest on the Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa podcast. He recalled when Smith and his co-star, Tommy Lee Jones, portraying Agents J and K, were shooting a scene where a car in which they were traveling at super high speed transformed. For the shot, Smith and Jones had to be “hermetically sealed” inside the pod used as their mode of transportation, ensuring they were fully enclosed during the intense scene.
Sonnenfeld shared, “There are locks to prevent it from opening and falling. I say, ‘Roll camera,’ and I hear Will Smith go, ‘Oh Jesus, so sorry. Tommy, so sorry. Baz, get the ladder.’ And you hear Tommy saying, ‘That’s fine, Will. No worries, Will. Don’t worry, Will.’”
The director admitted that he was clueless as to why Smith was apologizing. He continued, “So we race the ladder over. Yeah, Tommy reaches his leg out as the ladder is coming over, and races down the stairs. And what happened was, that Will Smith is a farter. It’s just some people are [farters].”
He went on to explain that being stuck inside the small, hermetically sealed space with Will fart was not the best place to be, adding that at that point, nobody would want to sit with him even at the Disney ranch. Sonnenfeld said, “We evacuated the stage for about three hours. And that’s incredible. No, he’s, you know, a lovely guy. Just, he farts. Some do, some don’t.”
Despite Smith getting gassy, the actor performed incredibly well in the movie, which grossed $584 million globally and became the third-largest-grossing movie in 1997. He also starred in Wild Wild West, Men in Black II, and Men in Black 3 with Sonnenfeld.
