David Schwimmer recently said on the “Origins with Cush Jumbo” podcast that he’s well aware how different his career would have been had he not rejected the offer to lead 1997’s “Men in Black.” The actor’s popularity was skyrocketing at the time as he was a few seasons into “Friends.” He decided to direct his own movie instead of acting in “Men in Black.”
“[It] was a brutal decision,” Schwimmer said. “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.”
Miramax finally gave him the chance to direct a movie and he found the script for “Since You’ve Been Gone,” a comedy about a group of adults reuniting at their 10th anniversary class reunion.
“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,” Schwimmer said. “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,” he continued. “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.”
“Since You’ve Been Gone” was supposed to be a theatrical release but premiered instead as a made-for-television movie on ABC in 1998. “Men in Black,” meanwhile, went on to cast Will Smith in the role initially offered to Schwimmer. Smith was coming off the blockbuster “Independence Day” at the time, and the success of “Men in Black” turned him into one of the world’s biggest stars.
“You have to follow your gut. You have to follow your heart,” Schwimmer said. “Look, 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.”
Head over to the “Origins with Cush Jumbo” podcast to listen to Schwimmer’s interview in its entirety.
