Will Smith and Ben Foster didn’t speak during Emancipation filming

• Will Smith and Ben Foster avoided speaking to each other during filming Emancipation.
• The pair were both starring in the Apple TV+ project.
• Will recalled that Ben didn’t only avoid talking to him; he also avoided making eye contact with him 

During the course of filming Emancipation together, Will Smith and Ben Foster developed a pretty unusual romance.

When hosting Red Table Talk for the first time on December 14th, the King Richard actor reflected on the experience. Will claimed that from the first day on set, when he was thanking the background actors, Ben and he avoided each other the entire time. Ben played the slave hunter Jim Fassel alongside Will’s enslaved character Peter in the Apple TV+ project.

“I was giving my best Will Smith and Ben just walked past me, and didn’t say nothing,” Will said. “I was like, ‘Oh, he must not have seen me.’ And then for six months, he didn’t speak to me.”

Will recalled that Ben didn’t only avoid talking to him; he also avoided making eye contact with him and giving him any sort of acknowledgement. While some might consider this impolite, Will and Ben appeared to understand in a literal unspoken sense how this kept them in character.

“When he did that first day, I was like, ‘Yep, got it. We’re not playin’,'” Will continued. “This is real. This is serious. We’re not fooling around with these ideas. And I really credit Ben for clicking me into the next gear of depth and focus.”

Eventually, the pair did speak, but it wouldn’t be until the project was wrapping up.

“So, the final day, me and [director] Antoine [Fuqua] are at the monitor looking at the shot, and Ben comes over,” Will recalled. “He comes to the monitor and he watches the shot, and Antoine said, ‘I’m happy. We got it.’ And then I look over at Ben. He says, ‘Nice to meet you. Ben.'”

The Hell or High Water actor recalled a peculiar aura from Will that inspired Ben to delay getting close to his co-star until the very last minute.

“The first day of set was staggering,” Ben shared during the Red Table Talk episode. “I was walking past men in chains, and in situations of such tremendous violence. And then I felt him. I didn’t see him, I felt him. It was Will on set. But it wasn’t Will Smith as we know him. It was a man, and that man was vibrating. It’s animal stuff. It’s hard to explain.”

Ben continued, “But I could feel the presence of this man who was digging deep. And I passed him, and I felt, well, I’m gonna give him his space.”

Ben said he had a lot of respect for Will and the way his talent was presented, even if he didn’t interact with the 54-year-old very much behind the scenes.

“This is a performance that speaks to the human spirit against all odds,” Ben said. “To fight for love. The fight of faith, the fight to endure and endure for love. I’m blown away by what Will Smith did in this film.”

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