WATCH: Martin Lawrence And Will Smith On The Poignant "Big Reach" At The Center Of 'Bad Boys: Ride Or Die'

essencemagazine

The actors discuss the iconic improv that has helped define their blockbuster franchise, and the deeper messages conveyed beneath its action and comedy

Transcript

00:00 To me and you know, it's a no, no spoiler alert.

00:04 No spoiler, but for for audiences who have been fans

00:09 of this franchise for you are going to scream and cheer

00:14 out loud at a scene in this movie.

00:18 It is such a gift for people who have been down, you know,

00:22 from the beginning that it is, you know, in in cinema.

00:26 There's very few payoffs that as good as as this this one

00:33 in this movie.

00:33 Mike, this storm coming things are going to get bad.

00:40 We're going to be testing just know what good.

00:47 Boys, if you seeing this, I'm probably dead.

00:54 Whoever gave the order to kill me in the department.

00:58 They're coming after you next.

01:00 You should be careful your people what you did with being

01:08 framed.

01:08 Just us no backup.

01:19 I endured for almost 30 years this way and I think a lot

01:23 of the magic of it comes from you all of banter and rapport.

01:26 So I want to ask you over the course of the four movies.

01:29 What is one of your favorite scenes with you guys of

01:32 improv together?

01:33 That we improv.

01:36 Yes, ready for me to write quite a bit.

01:39 The Reggie scene Reggie Reggie sing literally every word

01:44 of that scene was improv.

01:46 Yeah, you know and to do that and then it turned out to

01:51 be like the signature iconic scene from from bad boys to

01:57 you know, that was like full-on just letting it rip.

02:01 It's like it's like comedic.

02:03 You just out on that comedic limb and every take is different

02:07 and you just going and it was beautiful.

02:09 It was beautiful and it's kind of amazing because Reggie

02:12 Pat's pretty much pretty big Arc born from that.

02:16 Yes, which is crazy.

02:18 That was his first scene and you know, he wasn't even an

02:21 actor, you know, and you know, yeah, he wasn't that wasn't

02:24 an actor and and you know, I just to me and you know, we

02:30 it's a no, no spoiler alert.

02:32 No spoiler, but for for audiences who have been fans of

02:37 this franchise for you are going to scream and cheer out

02:43 loud at a scene in this movie.

02:46 It is such a gift for people who have been down, you know,

02:50 from the beginning that it is, you know, in in cinema.

02:55 There's very few payoffs that as good as as this this one

03:01 in this movie.

03:02 I agree.

03:02 It's a real treat.

03:03 I also want to ask you both.

03:05 What is the takeaway?

03:07 I guess for fans.

03:08 I know there's an overall message of friendship being

03:10 ride-or-die whatever but each film I think has a different

03:13 little nugget.

03:14 What do you think the takeaway for fans are from the fourth

03:17 installment?

03:18 You know, there's a that so, you know for us in the you

03:22 know, the first movie what we were playing with and we

03:24 weren't as good at it and in the first movie we were playing

03:28 with identity, right?

03:30 And then in the second film we were playing with lies, right?

03:35 And then the third film is when we got like intelligent

03:40 about the underlying thematic premise of movies, right?

03:44 So in the third movie grow or die, right?

03:48 Was that was like the thematic focus and in this film to

03:53 me, which was one of the biggest possibilities and we

03:56 took we took a big reach for this one and you know, Marcus

04:00 his character has has a spiritual experience and his his

04:07 character is trying to get Mike to trust the universe, you

04:12 know, and it's like to me, you know, we don't we don't

04:15 compromise being a popcorn movie, but I love the idea

04:20 that of having something that poignant that we're trying

04:24 to say in a bad boys movie and just hiding it under the

04:28 beauty and comedy of what we're trying to try to do for

04:32 a summer audience.

04:34 He's saying this without giving the story away.

04:36 Yeah.

04:37 Ha ha ha ha ha.

04:38 Yeah.

04:39 Yeah.

04:40 Yeah.

04:41 (gentle music)

04:43 (footsteps)

Category

Transcript

Recommended