David Schwimmer on turning down Men in Black

David Schwimmer reflects on turning down Men in Black & says it was a “brutal decision” as he wonders if it would have made him a movie star.

Once upon a time, David Schwimmer was offered the leading role in Men in Black. He turned it down. Will Smith wound up taking on the role, and the film helped propel him to superstar status while Schwimmer was left toiling in one of the most popular sitcoms of all time.

While speaking on the Origins with Cush Jumbo podcast (thanks to IndieWire), Schwimmer reflected on turning down Men in Black and explained why he made the choice he did. The actor was in the midst of starring in Friends at the time, but he would have been able to fit in Men in Black during his summer hiatus. Instead, he chose to honour his commitment to what would become his feature directorial debut.

“[It] was a brutal decision. I had just finished filming ‘The Pallbearer,’ my first film with Gwyneth Paltrow, and there were high expectations of that which didn’t come true. It was kind of a bomb but there were high expectations and the studio which was Miramax wanted to lock me into a three-picture deal at a fixed price and I said I would do that if I got to direct my first movie,” Schwimmer explained. “So after months of negotiations, they finally said that I would act in three more movies for them but I got to direct my entire theatre company in the first film. All these unknown actors but I was going to put them on the map, basically. I was going to let everyone discover the talent of this amazing company.“

Schwimmer continued, “We found this amazing script and we were developing it. We started pre-production. All my best friends in the world in my theatre company quit their jobs so they could be in this film over the summer, which was going to be a six-week shoot in Chicago. We’re in pre-production, hired the whole crew, everything’s going and that’s when I was offered ‘Men in Black.’ It was a direct conflict with this. My summer window from ‘Friends’ was four months. I had a four-month hiatus and ‘Men in Black’ was going to shoot exactly when I was going to direct this film with my company. And of course, it was an amazing opportunity. […] However, my theatre company and that relationship with all those people would probably have ended.“

The project in question was Since You’ve Been Gone, a dark comedy about a 10-year class reunion. The film was supposed to have been released theatrically, but was instead dropped on ABC as a made-for-television movie. All these years later, Schwimmer wonders whether Men in Black would have made him a movie star. “If you look at the success of that film and that franchise, my career would have taken a very different trajectory,” he said.

Would Men in Black have worked as well with David Schwimmer as Agent J?