Actor Will Smith taps nostalgia with Bad Boys sequel as he attempts post-slap comeback

LOS ANGELES – During Latin pop star J Balvin’s set at music festival Coachella in April, a surprise guest star suddenly appeared onstage: Will Smith, wearing a familiar black suit and sunglasses, launched into the title song of Men In Black, his 1997 Hollywood blockbuster.

It was the beginning of a frenetic spring for the American actor as he carefully re-entered the public eye to promote Bad Boys: Ride Or Die, his first wide-release movie since he slapped American actor-comedian Chris Rock at the Oscars in 2022, a move that threatened to derail his career.

Smith has been back walking on red carpets, bantering on talk show The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon and eating spicy chicken until his eyes watered on Hot Ones, the popular YouTube show. He told talk-show host Fallon that his publicity tour had taken him to eight cities in 12 days, with stops in Dubai and Riyadh for what he described as the first Hollywood premiere in Saudi Arabia.

Bad Boys: Ride Or Die, the fourth entry in a nearly three-decade-old buddy comedy action franchise that started in 1995, opens in Singapore cinemas on June 20, with sneaks from June 14 to 17.

Whether by accident or agreement, the slap has not come up much in Smith’s pre-release publicity blitz. But the sequel itself seems to refer archly to it, as several critics have noted. In it, Smith gets slapped by his co-star, American actor Martin Lawrence, and called a “bad boy”.

The duo reprise their roles as Miami police officers who investigate the suspicious death of their former captain. 

Lawrence, 59, appeared on The Tonight Show with Smith, 55, and praised him effusively: “He is one of the most professional actors out there, one of the most talented actors out there, he has a brilliant mind, he’s a genius and he’s upstanding.”

Some analysts said that Smith’s decision to tap nostalgia for his return was savvy.

“It was smart to make a movie that’s part of a franchise, that people are familiar with and his audience, his core fans, would like,” said public relations agency Golin’s former chairman Fred Cook, who is a professor at the University of Southern California.

Smith broke out in the late 1980s as part of the hip-hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince. His sitcom, The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, ran for six seasons (1990 to 1996), leaving behind a theme song that to this day many a millennial can recite on command.

Beginning in 1995, Smith starred in a string of hit movies – the original Bad Boys, Independence Day (1996), Men In Black, Wild Wild West (1999) – that established him as a premier leading man who had achieved broad popularity.

“He was definitely seen in the mid-to-late 1990s and 2000s as a star who transcended race,” said Fordham University media studies professor Brandy Monk-Payton. “He had blockbuster films and crossover status, being able to bring in not only black but also white audiences.”

Veteran communications and crisis consultant Joe Quenqua said: “There are few people in this industry who were as beloved as Will Smith prior to this incident.”

His next movie after the Oscars slap, Emancipation (2022), a US$120 million (S$162 million) film that had been seen as a likely awards season darling, was issued to a whimper. Then his wife, American actress Jada Pinkett Smith, released a memoir revealing that the couple had been separated since 2016.

But Smith eventually passed the crucial box office test, with Bad Boys: Ride Or Die opening with US$56 million in North America and to decent reviews.

At the film’s Los Angeles premiere on May 30, where Smith was greeted by cheers on Hollywood Boulevard, a reporter from Variety asked him about the fans who have stuck by him.

“It’s not just here,” Smith replied, standing beside Lawrence. “It’s all over the world. Every time we step out together, it’s nothing but love. I think the fans are ‘ride or die’ also.” NYTIMES