‘Men in Black’ Director: ‘Will Smith Is a Farter,’ We Had to Clear the Set for 3 Hours

Barry Sonnenfeld, director of the 1997 smash hit blockbuster Men in Black, made headlines this week when he shared a rather embarrassing story about his film’s star, Will Smith, having such a bad case of flatulence that the movie set had to be vacated for three hours.

Sonnenfeld revealed the embarrassing story during an appearance on the Let’s Talk Off Camera With Kelly Ripa podcast. According to the director, Smith’s case of flatulence occurred when they were shooting the scene in which Smith and Tommy Lee Jones drive upside-down through the Queens tunnel in a high-powered car. In order for the stunt to work, Sonnenfeld said the two actors were “hermetically sealed” in the pod serving as the car; that’s when Smith allegedly let one rip.

“There are locks to prevent it from opening and falling,” Sonnenfeld said. “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. 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 continued. “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.”

The episode resulted in the set having to be evacuated for three hours. Sonnenfeld also described Smith as a “lovely guy.”

 “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,” he said.

Combined with the success of 1996’s Independence Day, Smith’s role in Men in Black (1997) solidified his status as a movie star powerhouse, with both films earning a combined total of over a billion dollars worldwide.

Smith has been undergoing a rehabilitation period recently to make up for the damage done to his reputation following the infamous slap against Chris Rock during the 2022 Oscars telecast. Despite multiple setbacks and false starts, 2024 has been shaping up to be a good year for Smith with the box office success of Bad Boys Ride or Die this summer, which earned $403.7 million worldwide.