Report: Will Smith confirms Steven Spielberg is a lovely host, serves delicious lemonade

Will Smith may have irrevocably harmed his career by assaulting Chris Rock, transforming him from Hollywood nice-guy to wife-defending alpha, but that doesn’t mean he’s immune to the bold citrusy flavors of ice-cold fizzy lemonade. The man known for correcting himself when he foolishly mispronounced “Willennium” as “millennium” knows to say yes when Steven Spielberg sends him a helicopter and a cool beverage.

Appearing for another round of character rehab on what can only be described as the perfect location for such an activity, Will Smith joined Kevin Hart’s Peacock interview show Heart To Hart. No, he wasn’t asking Hart, “How many friggin’ shows do you have?” Instead, Smith told Hart about the hardball negotiating master dealmaker Steven Spielberg played in convincing the actor to star in Men In Black.

Coming off of Independence Day, Smith was hesitant about becoming America’s most prominent alien puncher. “I kinda understood Men In Black, like a little bit, but I didn’t want to make Men In Black—that was the next year after Independence Day,” he said. “So I didn’t want to make two alien movies back to back.”

So Spielberg did what any legendary director whose last two movies were Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List would: He sent Smith a helicopter, introduced him to fizzy lemonade, and made a simple request. Spielberg had him “at ‘Hello.’”

“Steven Spielberg sent a helicopter for me,“ Smith said. “To talk. It landed at his house. And he had me at ‘Hello.’ And it was the first time I ever had lemonade with carbonated water.” But this was all built toward Spielberg’s trump card, which Smith describes as “the coldest shit ever.”

“He said, ‘Tell me why you don’t want to make my movie….’ He put the ellipses at the end…if he had continued, he would have said, ‘Joker, you know I made Jaws, right? You know I made E.T.’” Smith, who presumably stopped himself before saying, “You know I made Steve Spielberg’s Director’s Chair,” obviously couldn’t say no.

And lo, as it was written, Will Smith starred in both Independence Day, where he punched an alien in the face, and Men In Black, where an alien puked on him. We have Steven Spielberg and fizzy lemonade to thank.

[via EW]