Tommy Davidson reported being confronted by his colleague in his trailer on the set of ‘Cosmic Encounter’
Actor Tommy Davidson has revealed that his colleague Will Smith attacked him during the filming of the comedy ‘Cosmic Encounter’ (1998) because of a kissing scene between him and actress Jada Pinkett Smith, the wife of the star of the ‘Men in Black’ franchise. The incident was exposed by Davidson on the latest episode of the interview podcast ‘Club Shay Shay’, hosted by Shannon Sharpe, reports the US Weekly magazine website.
The tension over the filming of the kiss came to light a day after Jada gave an interview saying that she and Smith have been separated since 2016. In a conversation with People magazine, she said that her colleague Chris Rock asked her out on a date when he heard about the rumors of the end of their marriage. In the actress’s opinion, her refusal could have fostered a “misunderstanding” that incited Rock to make the joke about her baldness at the 2022 Oscars that resulted in Will Smith slapping her.
Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars
“He came to my trailer, I was sitting down,” recalled Tommy Davidson about his incident involving Jada and Smith. “He was standing over me going, ‘I didn’t think that was cool, man, I didn’t like that’. And I was like, ‘what are you talking about? I said, ‘What’s going on, man? Explain it to me’. And since he was standing and I was sitting, I was a really nice guy. It concerns physics.
“At the end of the day I said, ‘we’re in a tight spot here, let’s talk about it, me and you, outside, because you look like you want to get it off your chest’,” Davidson recalled.
According to the actor, Jada was also present at the scene and asked her colleague and her husband not to talk in private. Smith eventually gave up and Davidson spent years not understanding the cause of his discomfort. The situation was only clarified when he released his autobiography, ‘Living in Color: What’s Funny About Me’, in 2020. He said that in the book he related the story involving the couple and contacted Smith to understand what had happened.
Jada Pinkett Smith and Tommy Davidson in Cosmic Encounter (1998)
Through a mutual friend of the couple, Davidson learned from Smith that he was upset about the filming of the kissing scene. The sequence was in the script for the movie, but it was filmed ahead of schedule and ended up being shot without a rehearsal.
Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith exchanged rings in 1997, a year before the release of ‘Cosmic Encounter’. The two are parents to Jaden (25) and Willow (22). The actor also has Trey (30), born from his first marriage, to actress Sheree Zampino.
Watch the trailer for ‘Cosmic Encounter’, starring Jada and Tommy Davidson and directed by filmmaker Daisy von Scherler Mayer: