Will Smith’s ‘Intense’ Habit While Filming Movies Revealed by ‘Bad Boys’ Co-Star John Salley

Will Smith takes his acting roles seriously, and his regimen impacts everyone on set. Retired NBA star John Salley, who co-starred alongside Smith in three of the four Bad Boys movies, recently detailed Smith’s intensity behind the scenes while chatting with the Fast Break podcast.

“Will is [intense]. Will knows every line,” said the former Detroit Piston’s center-forward of the blockbuster star. “So when you’re [doing a scene with Will], you can’t look at him, because his lips are moving. Because he’s saying your line, knowing his line is coming, because that’s how he remembers it. He’s like [pretends to mouth lines]. And you’re like, ‘What the f*** is wrong with your lips?’ I’m saying your line.’ It’s like, ‘I’m gonna say it!’” 

This isn’t the first time Smith’s acting method has been mentioned by a co-star. During HBO’s 2020 Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Reunion special, Smith’s co-stars Tatyana Ali and Karyn Parsons called him out for the same thing.

“I came out, I’m saying it to myself, I’m trying to get through it and just do my thing and keep it together. And you mouthed my lines back to me! For the first time! All rehearsal, you never did it. [But] the night in front of the audience, you went…[mouths words silently],” Parsons recalled, with Ali adding: “You did it to me, too.”

The Bad Boys franchise is a personal passion project for Smith. He stars in the action-packed police dramedy alongside comedy heavyweight, Martin Lawrence. “We agreed after ‘Bad Boys 2,’ you know, that we would never, like, come back to this franchise without a story that deserved to be attached to this franchise. We wanted to make sure that the movie lived on its own and not just, you know, ‘People like it, so we’re going to take a victory lap,’” Smith told Extra while promoting the fourth film earlier this year.