David Schwimmer Doesn't Regret Turning Down This Huge Franchise That Went To Will Smith

By Andrew Sanford | Celebrity | September 19, 2024 |

By Andrew Sanford | Celebrity | September 19, 2024 |

Can you imagine Sean Connery leading the Fellowship through the Mines of Moria? What if Will Smith woke up hairless in a pod that was harvesting his organs for machine food? Think for a moment about John Krasinski getting injected with a super serum and fighting Nazis in World War II! These were all possibilities. Actors turn down roles constantly, and sometimes the parts they reject end up being huge hits that generate money, opportunities, and collectible Taco Bell cups. So, hearing that a star like David Schwimmer still has some regrets is not surprising.

Schwimmer has had a career that many would envy. He starred in one of the biggest sitcoms ever, worked with directors like Mike Nichols and Ivan Reitman, and voiced a character in the Madagascar films. He “Greenzoed” everybody on 30 Rock. The guy has worked with a capital W. Still, in another world, his career could have taken a very different turn. Instead, he chose loyalty.

Once upon a time, David Schwimmer was offered the lead role in Men in Black. He turned it down. “[It] was a brutal decision,” Schwimmer explained on the Origins With Cush Jumbo podcast. “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.”

It turns out that Schwimmer was already deep into pre-production on his first directorial gig. “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 told Cush. “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.” Schwimmer has a passion for directing and has directed much more since. Still, it was his friends that kept him from stepping away.

“My summer window from Friends was four months,” he noted. “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.” It’s not easy turning down a role like that, and his directorial debut, Since You’ve Been Gone, ended up being shuffled to television.

Still, Schwimmer seems at peace with the decision. “You have to follow your gut. You have to follow your heart,” Schwimmer said. “Look, I’m really aware that 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.”

It’s wild to think how close he came to a vastly different career. Men in Black may not have been the mega-success with him in the lead, but I doubt it would have been bad. We’ll never know. What we do know is that Schwimmer turned down a gigantic opportunity to give his friends a shot at the big time. I respect the hell out of that.