-Thank you for coming back. We love having you here.
-Thank you, man. It's always fun.
-It always is. We always do something fun.
-It's always fun. -Is it weird rapping
your whole entire career?
-Yeah, you know, it was -- it was weird doing it with you.
-Yeah. -You know?
[ Laughter ] -No, I mean, okay.
[ Laughter ] -I understand. I'm not a rapper.
-No, no -- [ Laughs ] No, 'cause --
-I don't know if I imitated the Beastie Boys.
-Yeah, Beastie Boys. That's what I was like --
-"That's Philly!" -Yeah.
-Yeah, it's like, stop. What are you doing?
-Here's a little story I like to tell --
-Yeah, I know. I was doing that.
I don't know how to rap. I don't know how to rap.
-It was fantastic though. -It's that or Run DMC.
I was trying to do like, "Me and my Adidas..."
[ Rapping ] ...try to keep my rhythm.
-You are very special with that though, man.
Like, it's, like, I love coming here for that.
-Do you, like -- do you remember all the things
that you've done? -No, I was, like --
As we were going through, it was like,
"Wow, that was kind of -- I had a nice little run."
-No, you had a great run. Yeah.
You've done so many things.
So many different chapters of your life.
Is there any projects that you turned down that you regret,
and you go, "Ooh, I could have done that"?
-Yeah, there was one. I missed --
-"Titanic"? -Yeah.
"Titanic." Yeah, I missed -- I'd have been walking up
on that bow, like, "Hey, girl."
No -- I went too far. [ Laughter ]
No, it was -- Martin and I were talking about that.
We were sitting down.
You know, 'cause it was 25 years since the first "Bad Boys,"
so we were talking about stuff like that.
And, you know, the ones that got away.
And for me, Neo was the one that --
I had "The Matrix" first. -Really?
-Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-Who was going to be Morpheus? -Val Kilmer.
Val Kilmer was going to be Morpheus.
So I was Neo. Val Kilmer was Morpheus.
-Wow. -I heard somebody go, "Eh."
[ Laughter ]
-We're happy with way it turned out.
-No, no. But it was better this way.
'Cause, you know, like, if I would have been Neo,
then Morpheus wouldn't have been black,
and then it would have just threw everything else off.
-Yeah, everything else would have been --
-I think he -- it was perfect.
-I got to tell you, you were in my house every single day
day for the past year. -Hey, hey, hey.
-No, in a good way. -Oh, okay.
-Yeah, a great way, no. [ Laughter ]
My daughters love you in the --
-I didn't know you knew I was there.
-No, no -- [ Laughter ]
You got to get your own apartment.
[ Applause ] You got to move out of my house.
-[ Laughs ]
-My kids are obsessed with "Aladdin."
And they love you. -Aw, man.
-You crushed that movie. -Thank you, man.
Thank you, thank you. [ Cheers and applause ]
-You crushed it. So good. So funny.
It's all of your talents.
-Yeah, no, it was like so --
you know, so many years of things that I worked on.
I got to use all of them in that movie.
So I got to rap, to sing. -Dance.
-To dance, to act. There was comedy.
-You were funny. -There was drama.
-Yeah, it was like -- it was --
-I mean, my Alexa is, like, there's like,
"Play 'Friend Like Me,' Will Smith."
That's what my kids say all the time.
It's like, "Get a new song, please."
[ Laughter ]
You're every single day. You crushed it.
The first "Bad Boys," you were saying, was that 1995?
-Yeah, 25 years ago. -Wow.
-Yeah, and the second one was 17 years ago.
-Is that right? -Yeah.
-Is it like -- look at these dudes.
-Yeah. Yeah.
-Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Now, that's all CGI? -Yeah.
I was like -- I was really, really thin then.
I was really thin. Those were the days.
-Anything you miss from -- Will Smith?
-So, for this scene, right, so this is the scene,
so Michael Bay was shooting this scene.
And I wanted to have my shirt on.
And Michael was like, "Dude,
I'm going to make you a frickin' movie star.
Take your shirt off." [ Laughter ]
You know?
I was like, "Mike, come on, man.
That's, like -- running with your shirt off?
Like, come on, man."
He was like, "Dude, you don't know. I know."
[ Laughter ]
So we compromised in that scene.
I was line, "Mike, I have to have a shirt.
Just let me -- I'll have it open, just not off."
And we compromised. -And that's that.
-And, you know, it was one of the iconic scenes
from that movie.
And to this day, every time I see Michael Bay,
he's like, "Dude, I should be in for half.
You owe me half." [ Laughter ]
"I made you a movie star." -"I made your career, man."
[ Laughter ]
Was it like riding a bike?
You and Martin getting back together?
-You know, I was definitely nervous.
'Cause, you know, it had been so long.
But literally the first moment that we were back together,
like, the chemistry is so crazy.
-Just there. -And it's like,
Martin as a comedian is wildly unique, you know.
It's very few people that --
the line that "Bad Boys" tries to walk is it's, like,
a serious, you know, cop drama.
There's real killings and things like that.
But then there's really broad comedy,
and walking that line takes a really deft hand,
and Martin is such a unique talent
in the ability to be able to get a big gut laugh
but not break the reality of the scene that's happening.
So it's -- I love working with him.
-Is it tricky to do? Because you're funny as well.
So it's two comedians. Like, who gets the funny line?
-Yeah, you know what? In the first "Bad Boys,"
right, because we both had our TV shows,
so we're both comedians. We're coming to it.
And, you know, Michael Bay had a different vision
for the characters.
He was like, "No, no, no. You're funny on TV,
but Martin's is going to be funny in the movie."
I went, "I'm funny." [ Laughter ]
You know, so, it was really hard those first couple of weeks.
'Cause Martin is killing. Martin is killing.
-Yeah. -And Mike's like, "Will, stop.
Stop making faces, dude."
Like, "Stand there, just be hard. You're hard."
You know? -"Take your shirt off, dude."
-"Take your shirt off." Yeah, you know?
But it was definitely the right idea.
And I learned a lot about balancing a scene.
Where, you know, one guy plays the straight guy,
one guy plays the funny guy.
And we were able to go back and forth in a way
that I feel is beautiful.
-You and Martin weren't the original choices
for "Bad Boys," right? -No, that's true.
All right, so Dana Carvey and Jon Lovitz.
[ Laughter ] That's really --
like, Dana Carvey and Jon Lovitz originally had the script,
and they were the original Bad Boys.
-Wow.
-And then Jon Lovitz's schedule changed.
So he had to push four months.
And Dana Carvey couldn't wait the four months.
So then Dana fell out.
So then Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson had the script.
And they, you know, they had a green light to make the movie,
but -- and then they went, and Martin was first.
They had Martin.
And Martin actually picked me for "Bad Boys."
-Is that right? -Yeah.
-Props to Martin Lawrence for that.