The Bad Boys franchise may be a hit now, but back when Michael Bay was directing the 1995 film that started it all, he says that Sony Pictures had no faith in the project because they had the belief that Black actors couldn’t generate overseas business.
The film, which arguably kicked off the film careers of then TV stars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, became a hit upon its release, grossing $141 million worldwide on a $19 million budget. The movie also served as the feature directorial debut of Michael Bay and he learned pretty quickly that Sony didn’t have a lot of faith in the project because of the misguided belief that Black actors couldn’t sell films to overseas audiences. Here is what Michael Bay had to say during a recent chat with Entertainment Weekly:
“Sony didn’t believe in the movie, because two Black actors don’t sell overseas. They had no faith in it. I was watching James Cameron’s ‘True Lies’ and I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, this guy has so much money.’ I have only $9 million. And they shut me down, literally. They shut the power off. That’s how rude they were on this movie. Luckily I had 500 days of film set experience doing videos, commercials, working with some of the most famous athletes in the world, and that’s where you really truly know how to deal with assholes.”
Bay also revealed that he came up with one of the film’s most iconic shots because of the resistance from Sony in regards to giving the director everything he needed to make the film work. The shot is the 360-degree spin around Smith and Lawrence’s characters that is featured heavily in the film’s trailer:
“I’m like, ‘This is going to be the trailer shot.’ For some reason, I just came up with this shot as we’re driving and I said, ‘Where’s the circle trolley? Get the circle trolley.’ And we made this round move and you guys rise up and it became a very famous shot. People try to imitate it, but it was a seminal moment. ‘Bad Boys’ literally changed the game on Black actors. It’s the first movie that really traveled overseas.”
Despite the success of Bad Boys, the casting of Will Smith in Independence Day released the following year, was also met with resistance from that film’s studio. Director Roland Emmerich revealed in July 2021 to IndieWire that the studio originally didn’t want Smith for the lead role because they felt casting a Black actor would hurt the film’s potential overseas. The movie’s worldwide gross of $817 million proved that notion wrong. The Bad Boys films have also increased in grosses worldwide with each installment. Bad Boys II grossed $273 million globally while Bad Boys For Life grossed $426 million worldwide.
This thought process is unfortunately something that isn’t new. Some believed this would be the case for Black Panther but that MCU title was a huge global hit, grossing $1.3 billion at the worldwide box office. Sometimes you just need glaring examples to show that some of the notions that the studios come up with are a bit misguided and painfully dated. Overseas audiences of all races want to see themselves represented. If the product is good, the film will do well. That’s really what it comes down to.
Are YOU surprised that Sony Pictures had no faith in Bad Boys?