Will Smith once did a fart so deadly that a film crew had to be evacuated from set for three hours.
Will, 56, starred in the 1997 blockbuster science fiction comedy hit Men in Black, an iconic film that sparked and entire franchise and grossed over $589.3 million worldwide on a $90 million budget.
The film was directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, who revealed that the production of this film wasn’t exactly entirely smooth running, and Will’s flatulence caused a little on-set drama.
‘We were getting ready to shoot Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones and Tommy does not suffer fools I’ll tell you that much,’ said Barry.
The director explained that the duo was locked into a sealed pod that was used as part of a car that transforms into a ‘hypercar’.
‘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.” Anyway, I don’t know what’s gone on, right?’
‘So we race the ladder over, Tommy reaches his leg out as the ladder is coming over, races down the stairs. And what happened was, Will Smith is a farter.’
‘It’s just some people are. And you really don’t want to be inside a very small hermetically sealed space with a Will Smith fart. You don’t even want to be sitting next to him at the Disney ranch,’ he joked.
he concluded: ‘We evacuated the stage for about three hours, no he’s a lovely guy – he just farts.’
The director made the comments to Kelly Ripa while appearing on the podcast Let’s Talk Off Camera. Kelly then questioned if perhaps Will was on a high protein diet that caused smelly flatulence.
‘I don’t think Will eats a lot of carbohydrates I’ll tell you that. I spent four or five days at his place in Calabasas and we pretty much had boiled chicken and sliced tomatoes for five days.’
Barry and Will worked together on more occasions on 2002’s Men in Black II and 2012’s Men in Black 3.
The actor and singer paid homage to this film recently when he appeared on stage at Coachella in April 2024 to perform the song ‘Men in Black’ which he released in conjunction with the movie.
The actor wore a black suit with black rectangular shades, the trademark look of the men in black in the franchise.