‘You could call him the not so fresh Prince’: Will Smith once unleashed a fart so foul, his costar needed a ladder to escape it

You know when you learn a piece of information and then think, “I really didn’t need to know that?” Well, that’s just happened regarding the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air himself, Will Smith — and it is pretty darn funny (in a “child giggling in the playground” type of way), to be fair.

The information in question came out in an interview Men in Black director Barry Sonnenfeld gave Kelly Ripa on her Let’s Talk Off Camera podcast. Sonnenfeld suggests Smith isn’t only a talented Academy Award-winning Chris Rock-slapping actor, a musical superstar, and the patriarch of a dynasty of entertainers but also a horrifically awful human being when it comes to passing wind. Discussing his time directing the 1997 sci-fi action comedy movie, Sonnenfeld described filming the scene in which Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are in the superfast hypercar (you remember the one).

As per Entertainment Weekly, Sonnenfeld said, “We have to bring a ladder over on wheels like the old days when you would get on airplanes from the tarmac, and we get them up there and we put them in the thing and we turn it upside down, and we’re ready to shoot. And they’re hermetically sealed in this space, and there are locks to prevent it from opening and falling. I say ‘Roll camera, and I hear Will Smith go, ‘Oh, Jesus. So sorry. Tommy, so sorry. Baz, get the ladder!'”

Sonnenfield then elaborated, “You hear Tommy saying, ‘That’s fine, Will. No worries, Will. Don’t worry, Will.’ I don’t know what’s going on. So we race the ladder over. Tommy reaches his leg out as the ladder is coming over, races down the stairs.”

So, what caused this emergency? Well, to put it simply, Smith’s horrendous fart. Sonnenfeld explained, “Will Smith is a farter. Some people are. And you really don’t wanna be inside a very small hermetically sealed space with a Will Smith fart. You don’t even wanna be sitting next to him at the Disney ranch.”

Smith’s gaseous expulsion resulted in filming coming to a half for longer than you might think. Sonnenfield said, “We evacuated the stage for about 3 hours. He’s, you know, a lovely guy. Just, he farts.”

Men in Black was released in July 1997, just a year after Independence Day, another Smith-led alien-focused sci-fi movie. In the latter, referring to one of the film’s aliens, Smith’s character, Captain Steven Hiller, famously asked, “AND WHAT THE HELL IS THAT SMELL?” In hindsight, there’s a strong chance it was his own foul-scented flatulence.

When Entertainment Weekly posted on X about Sonnenfeld’s smelly story, the platform’s users had a lot to say about it.

How did X react to this information?

There was one particularly funny reply and replies from people who found it hilarious.

However, for the most part, people weren’t impressed that this information — a 27-year-old fart — had made the news.

Each to their own, we guess. Perhaps Smith’s emissions have ceased over the years, perhaps not. We can’t blame a guy for passing a little gas every now and then but, in future, if you’re getting into an elevator and the only other occupant is Will Smith, maybe wait a little while.