Will Smith Details Major Injury He Suffered on Set of Ali

Bad Boys: Ride or Die is now playing in theaters, and the fourth installment to the franchise sees the return of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence as Mike and Marcus, the cop duo first introduced in Michael Bay’s Bad Boys in 1995. The movie had a strong opening weekend at the box office, and fans have gotten to see Smith and Lawrence having fun promoting the film. In fact, Smith appeared on Hot Ones, and talked about some of his most famous roles, including playing Muhammad Ali in Michael Mann’s Ali in 2001, which earned Smith his first Oscar nomination. While talking about the film, Smith revealed he suffered a pretty extreme injury while playing the iconic boxer. 

Smith shared that “the hardest I’ve ever been hit on a movie set” was during the making of Ali. When the injury occurred, Smith was working on set with a trainer and Michael Bentt, who played boxer Sonny Liston in the film. “My trainer was trying to get me to get the angle of my spine forward. And in this second I just was like, ‘You know what? Commit.’ And I committed and leaned forward.”

He added that – “almost as an instinctual reaction” – “Michael Bentt threw a right hand. And I saw it coming at the last second and I put my head down. And he caught me with a right hand right on top of my head.” It “didn’t knock my head back, it compressed my neck down onto my spine. I felt an electrical shock go down the back of both arms to my elbows.”

Smith recalled having “an electrical taste” and added, “‘Where the f*ck are my keys? Where are my car keys?’”

What Is Bad Boys: Ride or Die About?

In Bad Boys: Ride or Die, wise-cracking Miami cops Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett are back in action when they learn that their former captain was posthumously framed for working for a drug cartel, igniting a mission to uncover the truth of the conspiracy to find out who set up their late superior. Not only do they hope to restore the honor of their late captain, but also find out who set him up and who might be putting targets on their backs next.

Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Paola Núñez, Jacob Scipio, Joe Pantoliano, and DJ Khaled all return to star in the fourth entry in the series, which adds Tasha Smith, Eric Dane, Ioan Gruffudd, Melanie Liburd, and Tiffany Haddish. Bad Boys: Ride or Die also brings back Bad Boys for Life directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. 

Bad Boys: Ride or Die is now playing in theaters.