For his first major film role in the film Six Degrees of Separation (1993), Will Smith had to kiss actor Anthony Michael Hall on the mouth in one scene.
The kiss was clearly mentioned in the script and Will Smith had no objection to director Fred Schepisi when accepting the role.
However, on the day of filming this scene, the actor simply informed the director that he refused to film the kiss.
Faced with a fait accompli, the latter had no choice but to find a trick to shoot the scene without Will Smith having to put his lips on those of his partner on screen.
The camera was eventually placed behind the heads of the actors and Will Smith who simulated the kiss without getting too close to Michael Anthony Hall’s face.
The result is not very convincing, but it was the only possible choice…
Years later, Will Smith will look back on this episode in his career and say he regrets his decision: “It was very immature of me,” he said. I thought about my friends in Philadelphia and what they would say when they saw me kissing another man. I just wasn’t emotionally stable enough to dare do that. »
He will add that it was Denzel Washington who advised him not to film this kiss, for fear of the consequences for his career: “Denzel told me: “Don’t go kissing a guy, no, no!” »