David Schwimmer doesn’t regret turning down Men in Black, however, he acknowledges his “career would have taken a very different trajectory” if he starred in the 1997 film.
When asked on a recent episode of the Origins With Cush Jumbo podcast if he passed on the blockbuster franchise due to conflicts with his Friends filming schedule, the actor responded, “That’s not why I turned it down.” He instead chose to direct his first feature film.
“[It] was a brutal decision,” Schwimmer admitted. “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 (Laughs). 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.”
The Intelligence actor said after months of negotiations, they agreed that he “would act in three more movies for them” if they let him “direct my entire theater company in the first film,” 1998’s Since You’ve Been Gone. The film centered on a 10-year class reunion but was told through the eyes of a doctor who was humiliated on graduation day by being badly beaten up by a fellow graduate.
“All these unknown actors but I was going to put them on the map, basically. I was going to let everyone discover the talent of this amazing company,” Schwimmer explained. “We found this amazing script and we were developing it. We started pre-production. All my best friends in the world in my theater 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.”
However, his production for his directorial debut ended up overlapping with Men in Black filming, leading Schwimmer to make a difficult career decision.
“We’re in pre-production, hired the whole crew, everything’s going and that’s when I was offered Men in Black,” the Six Days Seven Nights actor recalled. “It was a direct conflict with this. My summer window from Friends was four months. 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 theater company and that relationship with all those people would probably have ended. I don’t think it would have recovered.”
Though Schwimmer said he doesn’t know if “he made the right choice,” he strongly believes “you have to follow your gut, you have to follow your heart” in these situations.
“Look, I’m really aware, whatever 20 years later maybe more, [Men in Black] would have made me a movie star,” he added. “If you look at the success of that film and that franchise, my career would have taken a very different trajectory.”
The Men in Black franchise ultimately starred Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in the lead roles.
