Will Smith revealed his “Emancipation” co-star Ben Foster, would not talk to him at ALL while they filmed the slave movie.
Ben Foster didn’t acknowledge Will Smith for the duration of the “Emancipation” shoot.
In the film, Will plays a slave named Peter who escapes from a Louisiana plantation after nearly being whipped to death, while Foster takes on the role of slave-catcher Jim Fassel.
During a discussion with his children Willow, Jaden, and Trey for their Facebook Watch series, “Red Table Talk,” Smith revealed that Foster went completely method for the entire six-month production.
“Ben just walked past me and didn’t say nothing,” he recalled of the first day on set. “I thought, ‘Oh, he must not have seen me.’ And then for six months, he didn’t speak to me. He didn’t make eye contact with me. He didn’t say a word. He didn’t acknowledge me for six months. But what he did that first day, I was like, ‘Yup, got it. We’re not playing. This is real. This is serious. We’re not fooling around.'”
However, Foster made a point of joining Smith and director Antoine Fuqua by one of the monitors on the final day of the shoot.
“He never came over to the monitor ever, so I’m (thinking this is strange). He comes to the monitor, he watches the shot, and Antoine said, ‘I’m happy. We got it.’ And then I look over at Ben, it’s his last day, he says, ‘Nice to meet you!'” the 54-year-old continued.
