Will Smith farted “so bad” that he cleared a movie set for three hours.
The actor and his Men In Black costar Tommy Lee Jones had to be “hermetically sealed” inside a pod to shoot a scene for the 1997 blockbuster in which the vehicle they were traveling in at high speed transforms. However, Smith immediately let rip once inside.
“We were getting ready to shoot Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, and Tommy does not suffer fools, I’ll tell you that,” the film’s director, Barry Sonnenfeld, told Kelly Ripa on her “Let’s Talk Off Camera” podcast.
“They have to be put in this device, which is [a car] that transforms into a hyper car, and [they’re] going to go through the Midtown tunnel upside down. We have to bring a ladder over on wheels like it’s like the old days when you would get on airplanes from the tarmac. We get them up there and we put them in the thing and we turn it upside down and we’re ready to shoot …” Sonnenfeld recalled.
“There are locks to prevent it from opening and falling,” the director continued. “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.’ ”
Sonnenfeld was initially clueless as to why the star was apologizing.
“So we race the ladder over. Yeah, Tommy reaches his leg out as the ladder is coming over, races down the stairs. And what happened was that Will Smith is a farter. It’s just some people are [farters],” he said.
The filmmaker acknowledged that being stuck “inside a very small hermetically sealed space with a Will Smith fart” wasn’t a great place to be.
“You don’t even want to be sitting next to him at the Disney ranch. We evacuated the stage for about three hours. And that’s incredible,” Sonnenfeld added. “No, he’s, you know, a lovely guy. Just — he farts. Some do; some don’t.”
