Barry Sonnenfeld revealed that the producers of “Men in Black” had a different idea about who should play Agent J and Agent K from Tommy Lee Jones; Chris O’Donnell and Clint Eastwood. Smith had starred in “Independence Day” and was actually Sonnenfeld’s wife’s pick for Agent J, so he hatched a plan to make sure Smith got a better chance. “I met with Chris and he was worried about the script and he had another movie offer. So I said, ‘Yeah, we may never get this script fixed and I don’t think he knows how to direct this movie.’ So he stopped watching the movie the next day,” he told Insider. “I think [O’Donnell’s] a good actor, but I had really been thinking about Will ever since my wife made the suggestion.”
But Smith still needed some convincing anyway. In a 2021 YouTube video, Smith explained that he had reservations and initially turned down “Men in Black” because he had just made “Independence Day” and didn’t want to appear in another movie about aliens. That is until someone very special convinced him otherwise. «[Producer] Steven Spielberg called me…” Will explained. “He said to me: ‘Why are you rejecting the film?’ I said, ‘You know, I just don’t want to be the alien guy. He said, ‘Erm, do me a favor. Don’t use your brain for this. Use my brain. He was so serious that I was like, ‘Okay. You did ‘Jaws’».
And the rest is history!
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