Will Smith and Martin Lawrence.Photo: Will Smith/Instagram
Will Smithwas set to make his musical comeback at the Grammys Sunday night — but had to cancel the surprise.
The Fresh Prince was originally supposed to be part of the65th Annual Grammy Awards'50th anniversary of hip-hop tribute performance,Questlove— who produced the over 10-minute-long performance —toldVariety. HostTrevor Noahpreviously insinuated there would be afew surprise performances, however, Smith, 54, had to drop out after starting to shootBad Boys 4.
“I’ll give the spoiler alert away.Will Smithwas a part of the festivities tonight, but they started shootingBad Boys 4this week,” Questlove, 52, told Variety on the red carpet. “There were a lot of preliminary shots that he had to do, so we had to lose Will.”
Questlove.Lester Cohen/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Questlove detailed his process of choosing which performers he wanted to see on the stage, culminating in a total of 27 minutes of performances that he ultimately cut down to 14. Though he was eager for Smith to surprise the audience, he was understanding, adding that getting Smith was “a shot in the dark” since the actor is “always shooting movies.”
The four-time Grammy winner said there were a lot of people in the production who were also busy, and he was understanding of their need to accommodate their schedules.
“We had a lot of people, and some of them have other jobs,” he said. “[Queen] Latifah and LL [Cool J] had to leave their respective shows to come and do this so there were a lot of legit reasons why we couldn’t be all-inclusive of some people. I promise you it’s going to be amazing”
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While Smith couldn’t make the show, he was reuniting with his fellowBad BoyMartin Lawrencein avideo posted to his InstagramTuesday teasing the new movie. “IT’S ABOUT THAT TIME!” read the caption.
source: people.com
