Will Smith has had a great Hollywood career until the 2022 Academy Awards. After being a two-time Oscar nominee, he finally won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his 2021 biographical sports drama, King Richard. However, his first Oscar win was overshadowed by his actions at the 2022 Oscars, as the actor went on stage and slapped the host of the night, Chris Rock. The King Richard star has since been apologizing for his actions and has slowly started working on gaining back his star status.
Will Smith
He is already working on his new projects and recently joined his fellow actor Kevin Hart on his talk show Hart to Heart. And during his conversation with the Jumanji actor, he shared how Steven Spielberg persuaded him to join the Men in Black franchise after he refused to do it.

Will Smith Did Not Want to Star in Men in Black

Will Smith has starred in several hit Hollywood movies, along with multiple hit franchises, and one such franchise also includes the sci-fi action comedy Men in Black. Starting with the 1997 movie, he reprised his role as Agent J two more times in a sequel and threequel.
Kevin Hart and Will Smith
Fans loved him and Tommy Lee Jones as the secret agent duo. However, during his recent appearance on the talk show Hart to Heart, Smith shared that he did not want to star in the film initially. He shared that he did understand the concept of the movie, but he was not interested in doing it.

“I kinda understood Men in Black a little bit, but I didn’t want to make Men in Black,” he said. The actor further stated that the movie was set to come out a year after his 1996 movie Independence Day, which is also based on the concept of extraterritorial.
The Men in Black franchise
“That was the next year after Independence Day. So, I didn’t want to make two alien movies back-to-back,” he said, explaining the reason for turning down Men in Black initially. However, he finally said yes to the movie after the Oscar-winning filmmaker Steven Spielberg approached him.

Steven Spielberg Convinced Will Smith to Star in Men in Black

Talking about the popular sci-fi franchise, Will Smith shared that he was not convinced to star in the 1997 film until the renowned filmmaker Steven Spielberg approached him with the same offer. He shared that the filmmaker sent a helicopter to talk to him, which landed at his house.
Steven Spielberg and Will Smith
“And he had me at ‘Hello.’ But, yeah, he flew me in. And he said the coldest sh*t,” Smith told Kevin Hart. Upon meeting him, Spielberg asked him why he did not want to make any movie. Spielberg, an executive producer for Men in Black, convinced him to accept the offer.

Recalling their conversation, Smith said, “And he put the ellipses at the end… It was the dot, dot, dot, tell me why you don’t want to make my movie,” before adding, “If he had continued, he would’ve said, ‘Joker, you know I made Jaws, right? You know I made E.T.”
Will Smith in Men in Black
And there is no doubt that the Indiana Jones director’s suggestion turned out to be another step for the Emancipation actor toward becoming an A-list star. The 1997 film Men in Black became a box office hit with $589.4 million. The franchise continued with two more movies, grossing over $1.9 billion worldwide.