Will Smith Once Farted So Badly That 'Men in Black' Set Had to Be Evacuated for 3 Hours

Award-winning farts.

Tommy Lee Jones And Will Smith In 'Men In Black II'
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Will Smith is a farter, per one director who worked with him several times (and in case you were wondering).

Men in Black director Barry Sonnenfeld, who also directed Smith in Wild Wild West, just appeared on the Let's Talk Off Camera With Kelly Ripa podcast, and the host asked him to share one "crazy story" from behind-the-scenes of the MIB series.

While Sonnenfeld explained there were many great stories to tell, he opted for one of the more... scatological tales from set on this occasion.

The director explained that they were all gearing up to shoot a scene with Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, and said for context, "Tommy does not suffer fools, I'll tell you that." However, Sonnenfeld shared that the costars loved each other.

The scene was to be shot in a car device that would be "hermetically sealed" for the actors to be filmed going "through the midtown tunnel upside down."

Sonnenfeld recounted, "So we have to bring the ladder over on wheels, like it's the old days when you would get on airplanes from the tarmac, and we get 'em up there, and we put 'em in the thing, and we turn it upside down, and we're ready to shoot, and they're hermetically sealed in this space. There are locks to prevent it from opening and falling."

Will Smith And Tommy Lee Jones In 'Men In Black'

Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in Men In Black.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

But just as the crew thought they were ready to go, there was a ~hitch~ in the plan.

"I say, 'Roll camera,'" Sonnenfeld said. "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, Tommy reaches his leg out as the ladder is coming over, races down the stairs—and what happened was, Will Smith is a farter. It's just some people are. And you really don't wanna be inside a very small hermetically sealed space with a Will Smith fart. You don't even wanna be sitting next to him at the Disney ranch."

Ripa laughed about this admittedly hilarious story, and asked what happened next.

"We evacuated the stage for—about three hours," the director claimed. "He's, you know, lovely guy, just he farts. Some do, some don't."

Well, I for one am one fun fact richer!

Iris Goldsztajn
Morning Editor

Iris Goldsztajn is a London-based journalist, editor and author. She is the morning editor at Marie Claire, and her work has appeared in the likes of British Vogue, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Refinery29 and SELF. Iris writes about everything from celebrity news and relationship advice to the pitfalls of diet culture and the joys of exercise. She has many opinions on Harry Styles, and can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.