An Iconic Action Director Wants To Work With Will Smith Again
An iconic action director says he would most definitely work with Will Smith again, one of the few in the industry saying that right now
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Will Smith has had a rough couple of weeks on the professional front following the slap that has seemed to reverberate all throughout Hollywood. The fallout for his actions at the Academy Awards hasn’t seemed to stop yet and last week the governing body for the awards show handed out a pretty stiff punishment for the actor. And while some of his future projects appear to be on hold for the time being, not all folks in the industry are looking to distance themselves from the actor. In fact, one of the biggest names out there said he’d be willing to work with Will Smith again and would have no problem teaming back up with the actor.
While speaking with Entertainment Weekly about his newest movie, Ambulance, which just hit theaters this week, Michael Bay was asked about the incident at the Oscars involving Will Smith and Chris Rock. Bay first felt the need to distinguish between a slap and a punch, saying that he also couldn’t believe what he was actually seeing when Smith took the stage to confront Rock. But then he was also quick to talk about how this incident was working to overshadow some of the world’s bigger problems. It was a long and winding answer to what went through his mind when he was watching it in real-time.
At the end though, Michael Bay was asked directly if he would ever work with Will Smith again. To this, the director was very clear saying, “Absolutely, 100 percent. He’s a very even-keeled guy. Very even-keeled.” There isn’t much in the way of double meaning here I don’t think and it seems pretty obvious that Michael Bay would welcome the opportunity to work on a project with Will Smith in the future.
One has to think that others, over time, will begin to see things the same way. And Michael Bay does have experience working with Smith in the past, having directed both Bad Boys and Bad Boys II back in 1995 and 2003 respectively. He didn’t helm the third movie in the franchise, Bad Boys For Life which came out a few years ago. The fourth movie in the franchise has been put on temporary hold following the incident at the awards show.
That was, of course, when Will Smith walked up on stage at the 94th Academy Awards following a joke made by Chris Rock at the expense of Will Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. He approached Rock and slapped him before returning to his seat. Though Smith would go on to win the Best Actor award, this past week he was given a 10-year suspension from the Academy and will not be able to attend awards shows in that timeframe. Additionally, some more of his planned movies have been put on hold for the time being. One of those was the upcoming Fast and Loose.
As for Michael Bay, maybe we will see a team-up with Will Smith coming at some point. His latest movie Ambulance is being called one of his best movies in years and is currently sitting at 69% on Rotten Tomatoes.
