Will Smith Let Out a Fart 'So Bad' theMen in BlackSet Had to Be 'Evacuated' for 'Three Hours,' Says Director

Mar. 15, 2025

WILL SMITH, MEN IN BLACK 3, 2012.Photo:Alamy

Alamy

Will Smithwas getting gassy with it on the set ofMen in Black, according to the film’s director.

Barry Sonnenfeld, who directed the 1997 intergalactic action blockbuster, appeared as a guest on theLet’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripapodcaston Wednesday, Oct. 2. During their conversation, released the day after Sonnenfeld’snew bookBest Possible Place, Worst Possible Timewas released, he shared a little-known fact about the Academy Award winner, 56.

Sonnenfeld, 71, recalled that Smith and his costarTommy Lee Jones, who portrays Agent K, were filming a scene where a car they were traveling in at super high speeds transforms.

To get the shot, Jones, 78, and Smith, playing Agent J, needed to be “hermetically sealed” in the pod that was being used as their mode of transportation.

Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith in Men in Black, 1997.Columbia Pictures/ Everett

Columbia Pictures/ Everett

“There are locks to prevent it from opening and falling,” Sonnenfeld told Ripa, 54. “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.’ ”

According to the director, he was clueless as to what prompted the apologies.

“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, Will Smith is a farter,” Sonnenfeld alleged.

“It’s just some people are [farters].”

Still, being stuck “inside a very small hermetically sealed space with a Will Smith fart” might not be the best place to be, theEnchanteddirector continued.

“You don’t even want to be sitting next to him at the Disney ranch," Sonnenfeld said. “We evacuated the stage for about three hours. And that’s incredible. No, he’s, you know, a lovely guy. Just, he farts. Some do, some don’t."

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One thing Smith’s gas couldn’t overpower was the film’s success.Men in Blackgrossed $584 million worldwide, becoming the third-highest-grossing movie of 1997.

Smith and Sonnenfeld went on to work together onWild Wild West(1999),Men in Black II(2002) andMen in Black 3(2012).

Will Smith as William ‘Will’ Smith, Alfonso Ribeiro as Carlton Banks, Tatyana Ali as Ashley Banks.Gary Null/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty

Gary Null/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty

Before becoming the A-list actor he is today, the “Gettin' Jiggy Wit It” hitmaker got his start in music before transitioning to television in the 1990s sitcomThe Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

And though hisFresh Princecostars may not have fart stories like Sonnenfeld, they do have fond memories.

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Speaking to PEOPLE in June,Alfonso Ribeiro(who played Smith’s uppity cousin Carlton Banks) referred to Smith as his “brother” while sharing the impact they made on each other’s lives.

“There’s so many relationships that were created then that still are incredibly impactful in our lives today,”Ribeiro, 53, told PEOPLE. “It meant everything in the world. It changed all of our lives.”

source: people.com