July 2003
Bad Boys II : An Interview with Will Smith
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Interviewed by Wilson Morales
Bad Boys II: An Interview with Will Smith
Sequels have been the theme of the summer. Everyone is flocking
to see their favorite characters back on the screen. With the
exception of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, most of the
films that are sequels this summer are to films which came out
within the last few years. Well, Arnold has some company as far as
films standing the test of time and coming back to the screen.
Eight years ago, Bad Boys came out featuring two actors who were
just starting to break out in Hollywood. Will Smith and Martin
Lawrence were already established stars but they were as big then
as they are now, which each of them making around $20M per film.
Bad Boys, believe it or not, became the highest grossing film for
Sony Pictures in 1995 with $68M. After branching out and getting an
Oscar nomination for his role in Ali and doing the sequel to Men
in Black last year, Will Smith has gotten together with Martin
Lawrence once again to reprise his role as Mike Lowrey in Bad Boys
II. In an interview with blackfilm.com, Will Smith talks about the
jokes and violence in this film that’s different from the original
film.
WM: What are your thoughts after seeing this film with an audience and seeing them leave with jubilee? WS: That was beautiful. Anytime that the crowd responds like
that at a screening before the print is done that's always a pretty good
sign. There's a real connection that I think a lot of it comes from The Fresh Prince
of Bel Air, that there's something about TV on a sitcom people really
connect to the characters. It's almost like people feel like they've watched
me grow up. They've watched me get married and then get divorced and
then get re-married and then be happy and have kids and all of that and
so people
because of the television show there was a connection that was created and
it's almost like we're friends more than watching a celebrity or watching
someone
that you don't know make a movie.
WM: When you look back at your career, was it an easier transition going from hip hop to acting? WS: For me as far as being able to move between careers and
between genres I guess the big thing is to always start at zero. Like when
I came from rap music I wasn't trying to use the fact that I was a rapper
to an actor.
I started at zero as an actor. Even like with 'The Fresh Prince' I'm not
rappin' on the show. They talked me into the opening credits but I'm not
rappin' on the show. When I do this show I'm strictly an actor. Then when
I moved into the movie world I didn't want to use the persona that I created
in the
television world. I wanted something completely different to start over at
zero which is the reason to choose films like Six Degrees of Separation;
try
to do something that's completely different. I guess in a nutshell is
complete respect for every genre. I'm not going in and trying to be a superstar
in
something that I'm doing for the first time. I humble myself and take it
back to zero.
WM: What do you think about the foul language used in the film and do you think it’s too excessive? WS: Trust me it's exactly what my mom's gonna ask me. We're
playing narcotics agents in Miami so that's a really dark, grungy world and
I wanted to commit to it. Even on the set I was struggling a little bit with
the foul language but I decided if you're gonna play this character you
just
gotta close your eyes and one hundred percent commit to it. It's definitely
rated
'R'. The only way I could do justice to that is it had to be raw. I couldn't
'PG-13' it; it's rated 'R' meaning no one under 17 will be admitted without
parents! Trey and I have already had that discussion and he's gonna have
to wait on this one.
WM: What about using the “N” word? WS: I've never used it but as an actor I was having to tell
myself to commit to the moment. That was really hard for me to not think
about you know my mother's gonna see it and what are people gonna say. I had
to commit to
the reality of the scene and here's a 15 year old boy coming to take my niece
out on her first date and we can not allow this boy to walk away from this
door thinking that he is gonna have sex with this girl! The character that
I went into was the drunk uncle with a pistol. The entire scene is adlibbed
so when you cut to the little boy's face that's real fear. I just had
to commit
to the reality of the dialogue of that character. Every father wishes that
he
could do and say exactly that so I hope I get a reality pass on that one.
WM: Because of the graphic violence, do you think kids should see it? WS: Hopefully kids aren't gonna see the movie if you're doing
your job as a parent. Hopefully once someone is 17 or 18 years old they can
tell the difference between fantasy and reality. Again make no mistake
about it this is a hard 'R' and it's a dark comedy, and there are some things
that are really dark in this film. I've never been one that felt that material
in music and television can make someone do something. My choices in the
past weren't based on not trying to influence kids to do or to not do
things. It's really more of a personal decision because I didn't want my
grandmother to
be mad at me, but I think that the movie is clearly fantasy and hopefully
the
parents will make the right decision.
WM: So do you think that there some comedy in the violence? WS: Comedy has always been such that the more people get hurt
the funnier that it is. You take it back to the banana peel, when somebody
slips and falls on a banana peel the closer they get to being hurt without
dying the
funnier it is. It's one of those weird human reactions to violence. It's
definitely a dark comedy and we are pushing the envelope of that comedy,
tragedy concept.
WM: You speak with such confidence. Were did that energy come from? WS: From the time I was young as I can remember four or five
years old my grandmother always had us reading bible verses in church. My
introduction to spirituality was through my grandmother and she's always
been a very calm, peaceful, centered woman that was something that I admired
and
aspired to. I've created my own concept that differed from my grandmother's
but it's a concept of the basic elements of treating people nice and the
metaphysics of karma; if you do something good then something good will happen
to you. If you do something bad, probably something bad is gonna happen.
There's certain rules of the universe that intuitively I always felt really
in tune with.
WM: With so much positive energy, why haven’t we seen you do more to spread the love like in commercial or joining certain awareness groups? WS: It's kind of tricky for me. When you're in my position
there's always people that want you to say things and do things and be a
part of things. It's something that is difficult for me if it's not something
that I truly am believing in and something that I truly follow. I struggle
with that. For example on this film there was an animal activist group
that were trying to protect the manatees, the waters off of Miami. It's
not that
I don't care; it's just that I can't stand up in front of people and say,
'protect the manatees' when I don't even barely know what a manatee is! It's
something that I struggle with to try to find the balance of using the strength
of whatever celebrity I've created to do the quote unquote right thing. It
has to be really personal to me.
WM: Are you aware that most females loved the part when you ran with your shirt off in the film and that your sex symbol status went off the charts there? Some want to see if you do it again in this film? WS: Michael Bay (the director) shot the scene in the first film
with me running with my shirt open which made one scene change the
entire future of my career. Up until that point nobody looked at me sexually.
I mean I'm 6 foot 2, I'm 200 pounds now, but I've been 6 foot 2 since eighth
grade when I was 6 foot 2
and 150 pounds so I've always been a little goofy. I sat in the back of a
movie theater and I just heard this woman just go, 'Mmmm.' I was like,
'wow.' I was sitting a couple of rows behind her and I was like, 'wow
she wants to do it with me!' That was a shock because I've always attracted
women with comedy. If you could make a woman laugh the underwear tend
to get looser. You can make 'em laugh you can get it. But then to be
able to make 'em laugh and for them to think I'm sexy, I was like, 'it's
about to be on.'
WM: Thanks. WS: Thank you. |
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