The directors of Bad Boys: Ride or Die have answered whether the film was inspired at all by the controversy around Will Smith slapping Chris Rock.
Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah directed the latest sequel to the iconic 90s film starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, returning for a fourth film after taking over the reins from Michael Bay for Bad Boys For Life.
The pair of Belgian filmmakers spoke exclusively to LADBible where they told us how the film was inspired by Will Smith’s recent controversy.
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They said: “Well, I think if you watch the movie, you see that there are some parallels between what's happening in the movie and real life.
“You know, there's it's almost like a meta experience that that Will in the character of Mike Lowrey goes through with some themes.
“So obviously, it had something, there is a connection between real life and the story of the movie in the movie itself."
When you say Will Smith and controversy our minds all go to one place – the slap.
Smith slapping Chris Rock in 2022 was one of the most viral moments of all time, leading the Bad Boys actor to be banned from the Oscars for 10 years.
He also resigned from The Academy, and several of his projects were cancelled.
When asked whether Smith’s controversies led to any rewriting of the script, Adil and Bilall said: "I think that the script was evolving the whole time.
“So, the only idea that we had pretty early on was the fact that they would be on the run.
“So yeah, everything was just, you know, part of life, basically of what the situation was. And that was always a part of the script eventually."
The inspirations from real life in the film did not manifest – disappointingly – in Smith’s character slapping anyone.
The film does, however, feature the core pair on the run, with their names being run through the mud in the media for their connection to their late police captain.
As well as this, Smith’s character – Mike Lowrey – suffers with anxiety and panic attacks throughout the film.
The actor, who won Best Actor for King Richard at the same Oscars where he slapped Rock, shared a statement on Instagram following the incident.
He apologised for his ‘unacceptable and inexcusable’ behaviour at the event.
He went on to say: “Jokes at my expense are a part of the job, but a joke about Jada's medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally.”
The joke that sparked the incident was made about Jada Pinkett-Smith’s shaved head, which Smith perceived to be making fun of her alopecia.
Bad Boys: Ride or Die releases June 5 in theatres.
Topics: Will Smith, Chris Rock, Bad Boys, Oscars, TV and Film, Film
Michael Slavin