Will Smith Talks 'Bad Boys 3,' Oscars, and Jaden & Willow
The Bad Boys are back. Will Smith might not be involved in the upcoming Independence Day sequel, but he is teaming up with Martin Lawrence for a third installment of their Bad Boys series.
“I saw Martin a few weeks ago,” the rapper-actor told A.Dot on BBC Radio 1Xtra. “I hadn’t seen him for about two years and we just looked at each other and we hugged and in that moment, we both knew we were making another Bad Boys. We’re definitely doing another one.”
Will and Martin teamed up for Bad Boys in 1995 and its sequel in 2003. In August, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that a third and fourth installment of the franchise are scheduled for 2017 and 2019. Now we know the duo will be back for a third, but the fate of Bad Boys 4 remains to be seen.
Watch Will’s full interview and check out more highlights from the Q&A below.
On playing James Bond: “Idris [Elba] has to do that one first. Idris is going to be the first black Bond.”
On not being in Independence Day: Resurgence: “I had a couple of films lined up. I had Concussion and Suicide Squad and it was a decision, timing wise, between Independence Day and Suicide Squad…The world is in a place of nostalgia right now, specifically in entertainment. There’s such a pull for nostalgia. It was just the perfect opportunity and it didn’t work out.”
On Jaden Smith: “There’s really a powerful internal quality as an artist that, as parents, we encourage. You have to get out on the edge. You have to try things. You have to be comfortable doing things that people don’t agree with. And you have to be comfortable doing things that you can fail. Jaden is 100 percent fearless. He will do anything. So, as a parent, it’s scary. It’s really terrifying, but he is completely willing to live and die by his own artistic decisions. He just doesn’t concern himself with what people think.”
On Willow Smith: “I have two sons. My oldest is 23. Jaden is 17 and Willow is 15. As a father and in the time I spend with the boys, they’re with six or seven dudes. So they have a small army when they go out. So their freedom is slightly different from Willow’s. Willow’s a 15-year-old girl so we try to have the same rules, but it’s a different world so we’ve been struggling with that. Yes, Willow has a curfew. Fridays and Saturdays, we give her until 11-11:30 p.m.”
On the Oscars boycott: “To me, it’s so far not about me. It’s not about us going to a show or not. This is a much bigger social issue. I’m recognizing a pattern of the narrowing of the imagery, the narrowing of tolerance in America. The last, pretty much 18 months, that I’ve been watching the news and experiencing the things that are going on in my country, my concern is that Hollywood is reflecting a regressive trend. Hollywood is supposed to lead. Hollywood is supposed to be the most diverse and most inclusive…I think it’s an absolute necessity that Hollywood lead. I’m concerned that I’m seeing Hollywood slipping and making a slide that is a social and political slide that’s happening throughout the country.”