Will Smith reveals how he landed The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air at a party in Beverly Hills
“Benny Medina is actually the real life Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Benny had gone from Watts to Beverly Hills. He pitched me the show and I was like, yeah okay, that's cool”
“He invited me to Quincy's house. It was Quincy's birthday. I was in town and I was just going to meet Quincy. So we go and Quincy said, 'Hey, did Benny tell you about the show?' I said yeah, Benny told me, it's really cool”
“Quincy had been drinking a little bit that night and he was like, 'Alright, we're gonna do an audition.' I was like, what? There were a bunch of people in the room and Quincy wanted me to do an audition in the middle of his living room at a party”
“I was like, 'Yo Q, I can't do an audition. I haven't studied anything.' He took me in the other room and he was like, 'Okay, tell me what you need.' I was like, 'Q, I need a couple weeks. I'm not even really an actor. Let me get a script and then I can get something to work on’”
“He said, 'Oh, so you need two weeks?' I said yeah. He said, 'Well what's gonna happen in two weeks is Brandon Tartikoff, who's the head of NBC, something's gonna come up and he's not gonna be able to do it, so he's gonna postpone’”
“But right now everybody that needs to say yes to this show is sitting in my living room waiting for you to audition’”
“I was like, fuck it, give me 10 minutes”
“It was such a valuable lesson. There's very few things more powerful than just leaping. Just go. You have the dream, the opportunity is there, just go”
“I have no recollection of what I said and what I did. It was a total blank spot in my memory. It was just a standing ovation. Everybody stood up and clapped”
“Quincy pointed to the head of NBC and said, 'Did you like it?' He said yeah. Quincy had everybody's lawyers come to the house that night. He said, 'I need a deal memo tonight.' He understands magic”
Ben Affleck breaks down why a $25M movie has to make $100M just to break even
Affleck: "It's very, very difficult to make a movie for less than $25 million"
"You spend about the same amount to advertise the movie as you spend to make it. So you spent $25 million to make it, $25 million to advertise it now you've got $50 million into the movie"
"From the theaters you get back roughly 50%. So if a movie makes $100 million, you get back $50 million. You've got to gross a hundred million just in simple math"
"People now go, 'this movie looks good, but I'll see it when it comes on streaming'"
Drake and Kevin Durant star in a new Nike commercial
“‘Hey Ant-Man can you drop your purple shoes’ said 4 kids in Minnesota like nobody wants to see those, they want the KDs”