Andy Tennant, the director of Hitch, revealed he had difficulty dealing with Will Smith during the 2005 romantic comedy production.
The film where the Oscar winner plays a professional date doctor is regarded as one of his best hits.
However, the Bad Boys star had creative differences with the filmmaker, which the latter described as a “battle.”
“We had our difficulties. The movie I wanted to make and the movie Will wanted to make neither one of those movies is as good as the movie we made together,” he told Business Insider.Â
“It was a battle. [Smith’s wife] Jada [Pinkett Smith] was a big help. She kind of seconded some of my instincts. There was a time during prep when I was pushing back. A lot of crazy shit that was happening.”
The filmmaker recalled the differences with him started to appear from the get-go.
“There was a draft that Will brought in that I was not a fan of. I finally told the studio that I was more afraid of Will making that version of the movie than I was about them firing me,” the 69-year-old added.
“Because I knew they were right on the edge of firing me before we even began shooting. And to Will’s credit, we didn’t go with that draft. I don’t think I was ever in anyone’s favor.”
The deadlock became so deepened that Andy claimed that Will “tried to back out three days before we started shooting” to work on the script, noting, “He wanted to shut down and work on it some more. It was madness.”
But at the end, when the shooting began, he said the differences gradually started to mellow down.
“It was a bunch of good creative people doing the best they could. There were some debates but there were things that turned out really funny. You keep all the really fun stuff you have a good movie, but it was a wild ride,” Andy concluded.
