Michael Bay points out that Sony did not trust 'Bad boys' because 'two black actors do not sell abroad' - yuetu.info

Michael Bay, the quintessential action film director, has just released Ambulance. Escape Plan, and in full promotion, he wanted to talk about the Bad Boys franchise (in Spain, Two rebel policemen ). A few weeks ago, we learned that one of the consequences of Will Smith‘s slap in the face of Chris Rock was that Sony Pictures had canceled the continuation of the Smith and Martin Lawrence police franchise; however, as Bay explained to Entertainment Weekly, that the Japanese producer never believed too much in the saga.

“Sony did not believe in the film because two black actors do not sell abroad. They had no faith in that,” the filmmaker confessed to EW. The director of titles like The Rock or Armageddon recounted how he saw that productions of the same genre received much stronger financial support than his film: “I was watching True Lies by James Cameron, and I thought, my God, this guy has a lot of money. I only have 9 million. And they literally shut me up. They cut the power; that’s how rude they were to this movie.”. However, Bay pointed out that thanks to his experience, he was able to deal with the economic problem. “Fortunately, I had 500 days of experience on the set of making commercial videos, working with some of the most famous athletes in the world, and that’s where you really know how to deal with assholes,” she argued.

Despite little studio support, Bad Cops was released in 1995 and grossed $141 million worldwide. It later generated two sequels, a second part that reached 273 million, and the last Bads Boys for life, released in 2020, passed the 400 million barrier. That’s why Michael Bay called the original film “a game-changer for black actors,” as well as launching Will Smith’s movie career, as this action flick came before the blockbuster Independence Day.

Will Smith’s beginnings on the big screen were much more complicated than people think because Independence day was about to not star the current winner of the Oscar for Best Actor. Director Roland Emmerich explained that the studio didn’t want Smith because they thought he wouldn’t work in international markets. Ultimately, Emmerich stood up for the actor, threatening 20th Century Fox to move their product to Universal if the actor didn’t end up starring in his film.