Although David Schwimmer admits his “career would have taken a very different trajectory” if he had been the lead in the 1997 movie, he doesn’t regret declining Men in Black.
The actor said, “That’s not why I turned it down,” in response to a question on a recent episode of the podcast Origins With Cush Jumbo regarding whether he rejected down the successful franchise because it conflicted with his Friends filming schedule. Rather, he decided to become a feature film director.
Schwimmer said, “[It] was a brutal decision.” the actor chuckles. âI had just finished filming The Pallbearer, my first film with Gwyneth Paltrow, and there were high expectations of that, which didnât come true (Laughs). 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.â
After months of talks, the intelligence actor said that they had come to an agreement whereby he âwould act in three more movies for themâ in exchange for allowing him to âdirect my entire theater company in the first film,â Since You’ve Been Gone from 1998. The film was told through the perspective of a doctor who was severely beaten up by a fellow graduate on graduation day, humiliating him and setting the stage for a ten-year class reunion.
âAll 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,â Schwimmer said, âWe found this amazing script, and we were developing it. We started pre-production. All my best friends in the world in my theater 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.â
However, Schwimmer had to make a tough decision about his career because the production for his directing debut happened to coincide with the filming of Men in Black.
The Six Days Seven Nights actor recalls, âWeâre in pre-production, hired the whole crew, everythingâs going and thatâs when I was offered Men in Black.â âIt 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 theater company and that relationship with all those people would probably have ended. I donât think it would have recovered.â
Schwimmer stated that he is unsure if “he made the right choice,” but he firmly feels that in these kinds of circumstances “you have to follow your gut, you have to follow your heart.”
âLook, Iâm really aware, whatever 20 years later maybe more, [Men in Black] would have made me a movie star,â he continued. âIf you look at the success of that film and that franchise, my career would have taken a very different trajectory.â
In the end, Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith played the key parts in the Men in Black franchise.