David Schwimmer, well known for his role as Ross in the sitcom Friends, recently revealed he had rejected a major film in his career. The actor had passed down the opportunity to star in the original Men in Black film. The first film in the sci-fi series, starring Will Smith as Agent J and Tommy Lee Jones as Agent K was released in 1997. At the time, David Schwimmer was playing the role of Ross Geller in Friends, but notably, that was not the reason behind turning down the offer.
David Schwimmer who appeared in the recent episode of Origins With Cush Jumbo podcast was questioned if he turned down a role in the blockbuster franchise because of difficulties with his Friends production schedule. The actor replied, “That’s not why I turned it down.” He instead shared it was to direct his first feature film whose timing clashed with Men In Black. While the actor doesn’t regret turning down the movie, he agrees that starring in Men In Black would have been a transformative decision. Talking about the difficult choice, he said, “You have to follow your heart. I’m really aware, whatever 20 years later maybe more, [Men in Black] would have made me a movie star. If you look at the success of that film and that franchise, my career would have taken a very different trajectory.”
Talking more about the journey that led him to his difficult choice, he shared, “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.” He added that after months of discussions, they finally agreed that the actor would act in three more films for them, but they would allow him to direct his entire theatre company in the first movie.
David Schwimmer added, “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.” However, his production for his directorial debut ended up overlapping with Men in Black filming, leading the actor to make a difficult career decision.
David Schwimmer’s directorial, Since You’ve Been Gone revolved around a 10-year high school reunion. While it was slated to be released theatrically by Miramax in 1997, the film instead was released on television in 1998.
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