Men in Black director reveals ‘Will Smith fart’ that caused filming to stop for ‘about 3 hours’

Film director Barry Sonnenfeld recalled an unfortunate moment while filming Men in Black, released in 1997, starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones.

During a recent podcast on the SiriusXM podcast Let’s Talk Off Camera, whilst promoting his new book “Best Possible Place, Worst Possible Time: True Stories from a Career in Hollywood”, he recalled a time when he was getting ready to film a scene with the main stars.

“We were getting ready to shoot Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones,” he said.

“Tommy does not suffer fools, I’ll tell you that.”

“They have to be put in this device, which is a car that transforms into a hypercar, and they’re going to go through the Midtown tunnel upside down.”

“We have to bring a ladder over on wheels like it’s like the old days when you would get on aeroplanes from the tarmac.”

“We get them up there and we put them in the thing and we turn it upside down and we’re ready to shoot,” he added.

“I hear Will Smith go, ‘Oh, Jesus… I’m 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.'”

Then as the team panicked they rushed to get Smith and Jones out of the sealed car only to learn what had really happened.

“What happened was, Will Smith is a farter,” Sonnenfeld revealed.

“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 continued that the whole team had to evacuate the room for several hours before they could attempt to go back in.

“We evacuated the stage for about three hours, and that’s incredible. He’s a lovely guy, just he farts. Some do, some don’t.”

Barry Sonnenfelds new book is available to buy now on Amazon, Google Play, Barnes & Noble, Audible.com, Ebooks.com, Kobo, Apple Books and Premierecollectibles.com.