The 1997 science-fiction comedy “Males in Black” is one thing of a miracle, a hilarious household movie that manages to enchantment to nearly everybody. It was additionally a little bit of a problem to make, and never simply because the filmmakers had to determine easy methods to deliver the film’s aliens to life. Initially the studio wished Chris O’Donnell, not Will Smith, for the position of Agent J, and it was director Barry Sonnenfeld’s spouse who got here up with the concept for Smith to star. Smith wasn’t so eager, nevertheless, and govt producer Steven Spielberg despatched a helicopter to get him. As soon as Smith was set, the subsequent huge drawback was that his co-star, the Academy Award-winning actor Tommy Lee Jones, might apparently be a little bit of a problem to work with. 

In his new memoir, “Finest Doable Place, Worst Doable Time: True Tales from a Profession in Hollywood,” Sonnenfeld shares an anecdote about attempting to clarify to Jones that he wanted to play the straight man to Smith’s extra outsized comedic character. It looks like a no brainer now, however on the time the deeply critical actor thought he needed to deliver the laughs, not realizing that his seriousness was really a lot funnier than if he actively tried to be humorous.

Jones had already earned a little bit of a fame making “Males in Black” earlier than it even started filming, together with a feud with screenwriter Ed Solomon that led to the author getting fired and rehired. These behind-the-scenes complications apart, he additionally did not fairly appear to know the character of his position — no less than not initially. Sonnenfeld explains that on the primary day of filming, Smith and Jones had been doing a scene the place they’re interrogating an alien and Jones thought he needed to over-emphasize the truth that he was asking the man to place up his flippers. Terrified that Jones would chunk his head off (he had already fired his hairdresser), Sonnenfeld cautiously tried to direct Jones: 

“See, Tommy, for you, that is all in a day’s work. Very Gl. Very Authorities Problem. Agent Ok does not assume ‘All of your flippers’ is humorous. You are simply saying it the identical manner you are saying, ‘Put up your palms.’ It is simply regular police process. That is what makes it humorous for the viewers.”

All through the course of filming, Sonnenfeld needed to preserve Jones from attempting to be humorous, and he mentioned that the actor’s agent was upset that he believed solely Smith would get laughs. Sonnenfeld defined the significance of the “straight man” in comedy duos, telling him, “The comedy is within the response shot.” Sonnenfeld turned out to be spot-on, in fact, as a result of among the funniest elements of the film are simply Jones’s stone-cold critical face within the reality of a lot ridiculousness.

Sonnenfeld mentioned that ultimately, the whole lot labored out, as Jones credited him throughout press junkets for his comedic expertise, saying that the easiest way to develop into humorous is to “stand subsequent to Will Smith and do no matter Barry Sonnenfeld tells you to do.” 

Truthfully, that is not horrible recommendation generally in the event you’re an actor, as a result of Sonnenfeld principally hits residence runs (and when he does not, it is not essentially his fault, just like the doomed-from-the-start “Wild Wild West”). Whereas the magic would not final ceaselessly and Sonnenfeld had some regrets in regards to the making of “Males in Black II,” he did return for the third movie as properly, “Males in Black 3,” so both the cash or the expertise was ok to do it thrice. Nothing might fairly recapture the magic of the primary movie, however no less than Sonnenfeld did not have to fret about telling Tommy Lee Jones to take it down a notch after that first film.