David Schwimmer appeared on a recent episode of Cush Jumbo’s ‘Origins’ podcast. When Jumbo brought up how he turned down an offer to play in ‘Men in Black’ during his time in ‘Friends,’ the actor admitted that the decision was a bad idea for his career but still explained the reason behind it.
‘Men in Black’ became a summer hit in 1997, earning $589.4 million against its $90 million budget, and still remains one of the most profitable films to date.
“I’m really aware — whatever, 20 years later [that role] would have made me a movie star,” the actor commented. “If you look at the success of that film and that franchise, my career would have taken a very different trajectory.”
“It would have been a big decision because the filming schedule would have been completely different to do a film and do ‘Friends,’” the host pointed out about the offer.
“Oh yeah,” Schwimmer said, “[but] that’s not why I turned it down.”
Apparently, the actor’s prior commitment to 1996’s ‘The Pallbearer’ led Miramax to offer him a three-picture deal at a fixed price, which included an opportunity to direct his first movie. He planned to work on his directorial debut with his own Chicago’s Lookingglass Theater Company.
“We started pre-production,” the ‘Friends’ star explained. “All my best friends in the world in my theatre 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. Budget set, we’re in pre-production, hired the whole crew, everything’s going, and that’s when I was offered ‘Men in Black.’”
“My summer window from ‘Friends’ was four months,” he went on. “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.”
Schwimmer made a ‘brutal decision’ between his loyalty to the theater company as well as the binding agreement with Miramax and a role that could’ve changed his career.
“I don’t know if I made the right choice,” he reflected. “I don’t know if [my relationship with longtime friends at the theater company] would have recovered. That relationship with all those people would probably have ended.”
The actor returned with other projects like ‘Kissing A Fool’ and ‘Six Days, Seven Nights’ the next year. He last appeared in 2024’s ‘Little Death’ opposite Gaby Hoffman and Dominic Fike.
