Hitch director thought he ‘ruined Will Smith’s career’ with iconic 00s rom-com
It has been 20 years since the iconic rom-com hit our screens.
When Hitch was released 20 years ago today, director Andy Tennant was able to breathe a huge sigh of relief, after convincing himself that he had ‘ruined Will Smith’s career’, and his own, following a hellish shoot.
The iconic rom-com hit our screens on February 11, 2005, following the Oscar-winner as professional ‘date doctor’ Alex Hitchins, who coaches men and helps them woo women into long-term relationships.
However, he has his work cut when Albert Brennaman (Kevin James) hires his services to impress celebrity Allegra Cole (Amber Valletta).
He stumbles over his failsafe techniques as he sparks a connection with celebrity journalist Sara Melas (Eva Mendes), but their budding romance is threatened when she discovers the truth about his line of work, and his bond to Albert and Allegra.
The flick was an instant classic, raking in more than $371million at the global box office and becoming the third highest grossing romantic comedy ever, behind My Big Fat Greek Wedding and What Women Want.
The overwhelming success came as a complete surprise to Andy, who branded the entire production a ‘s**t show’ in a candid chat with Metro to celebrate the anniversary – admitting that he spent a lot of the shoot clashing with his main star, and writing key scenes completely on the fly.
‘It was a rough ride, early in the beginning, because I think everybody was nervous. It was crazy. You don’t know the half of it,’ he told us. ‘I couldn’t keep the movie straight in my head, which is not a good place to be as a director.
‘The movie that I wanted to make is not as good, and the movie that Will Smith wanted to make is not as good, as the movie the two of us made by clashing, rewriting, improvising and coming up with stuff every single day.
‘It was [intense], it was a high wire act. I think every day, there was an energy to it that made it scary as hell. …. Things like that, on some level, I can look back at it now and go, “Wow, that was hard.” But the studio was fully supportive.’
Andy made a name for himself behind the camera after helming Sweet Home Alabama, Fools Rush In and Ever After: A Cinderella Story. He was looking for his next project, when he bumped into a creative executive at Will’s company, who sent him a script for the movie.
After signing on and assembling his cast, they all got to work, which is precisely when things went completely downhill.
Kevin Smith played unlucky-in-love Albert Brennaman (Picture: Shutterstock)‘When Will and I clicked, we were like two kids in a candy store. We had so many laughs,’ Andy continued. ‘Will had a certain window that we were going to make the movie, we were fastly approaching [it]. We didn’t really have a script yet, a lot of different ideas, good and awful.
‘We just made it up on the day … Frankly, it was a s**t show. Without [the team], I would have lost my sanity very early on. I practically did every day. It’s a really fun movie to watch, it was not a fun movie to make.’
He recalled scrambling with the script, explaining that they often ‘made it up on the day’ and would shoot scenes that his editors, Tracy Wadmore-Smith and Troy Takaki helped piece together. It was his team who gave him the belief that it was a ‘funny’ movie – something he wasn’t sure about until he ‘saw their cut’.
At points, they employed a string of other writers who buckled down and ensured the train ‘never went off the tracks’. Susanna Grant was among them, and ‘broke open’ the entire shoot with the suggestion that the normally smooth Hitch had to crumble when it came to impressing Sara.
‘That’s why, when we wrapped, I thought, “Well, I’m done. I have to figure out what I’m going to do.” I had a family. I thought, “I’m done. This is the end of my career,’ he declared.
Amber Valetta joined the cast as the iconic Allegra Cole (Picture: Getty)‘I’m not being humble, I literally thought my career was over and that I had ruined Will’s career, because so much of the movie was a jumbled mess in my head. Thank God for my editors, because the narrative was still there, and everybody in it was really funny. It was a team effort.’
Andy explained that the script would ‘get thrown out’ as they went to shoot something, meaning everyone would rush to rewrite something better – he would then go to Will’s trailer to discuss the new scenes, where the Men In Black superstar would ‘like one line’ out of ‘a three-page scene’.
The filmmaker then went home to plan a fresh idea and present it to his lead star the following morning – something that continued throughout the shoot.
‘Will and I finally got to trust each other, he was always afraid that I was trying to make a romantic comedy, and he was always saying it’s a comedy with someone with some romance. He was really afraid that it was going to be too soft, that it was not going to be funny,’ he recalled.
‘You can ask Will this – he said to me, at one point, in front of the studio, “I’m not going to be some punk-ass b***h who chases after a girl.” And I was like, “First of all, Will, you’re going to have to tell me what punk-ass b***h means. Then we’re going to talk about why you even signed up to do this movie.”
The home this scene was filmed in front of has a very Hollywood history (Picture: Shutterstock)‘I think I was almost fired two or three times, because Will was also the producer. The studio knew what it was like to work with Will, I didn’t. A lot of what he enjoys, and I think really thrives on, is that… on the day, let’s make this better.
‘He’s great in it. Kevin, James, God bless him, he was wonderful. Eva was wonderful, Amber Valetta. It was just a lucky piece of alchemy.’
A particular scene that almost never saw the light of day has become one of the most beloved in the entire movie – and happened by complete accident when the crew saw the beauty of the Manhattan street they were filming on, and rushed to extend their allotted time.
They managed to write in the scene where Hitch taught Albert how to walk a woman to her door and secure a goodnight kiss – informing him that ‘the secret to a kiss is to go 90% of the way, and then hold’ – in just hours.
In a pure coincidence that would only ever happen in New York, the house that they walked up to, and Albert ‘over-eagerly’ went the whole 100% in front of, actually belonged to Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, who found themselves involved by total chance.
‘Will and I walked up and knocked on a random door, and Sarah Jessica Parker opened the door. Of course she knows Will and they’re talking and chatting. Then she looks at me really curiously, and she goes, “Wait, I know you!,”’ Andy said, laughing that they once met on a flight, which led to dinner and dancing ‘1,000 years ago’.
‘They love it too, it’s a little bit of cinema history.’
It turns out that Sarah Jessica and Matthew aren’t the only A-listers with a tiny connection to Hitch, as Tom Cruise once stopped in to watch filming one day, in a complete surprise to everyone.
Andy, who had already suffered through a tough shoot, confessed that the Top Gun legend’s appearance on set added a huge amount of pressure on his shoulders.
‘One of the hardest days to film, we were in Hitch’s apartment, and we had just shot the scene where Kevin yells at him and basically says, “You turned love into a job,”’ he recalled.
Hitch’s date techniques completely failed to impress Sara (Picture: Shutterstock)‘I get a tap on my shoulder at the monitors, and a voice says, “Hey, do you mind if I sit here and watch?” I turn around and it’s Tom Cruise. I almost swallowed my tongue. I’m already working with one of the bigger stars in the world, and now the other bigger star in the world is tapping me on the shoulder, asking my permission if he can watch. Talk about heady!
‘Of course, I tried to act very, very normal, but then during the next take, I’m absolutely terrified because I’ve got Tom Cruise judging me, I’ve got Will Smith doing whatever he’s going to do. Like I said, thank God for Kevin James.’
Eagle-eyed viewers will also have spotted another famous face popping up as Alexander Skarsgård was due to have a role in the film as Allegra’s playboy ex Sebastian, before getting chopped from the final cut.
He only appears in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it pan to a newspaper article about their relationship, but was originally due to have a much bigger arc, and shot with the gang at Madison Square Garden.
Sadly, the ’12-minute sequence’ ended up on the editing room floor and, looking back, Andy couldn’t believe that the A-lister slipped through the cracks, but conceded that the scene in question just wasn’t ‘needed’.
Alexander Skarsgård was originally due to be in this scene (Picture: Shutterstock)After an early screening, bosses urged Andy and co not to change a single thing and the film, coming in at an hour and 58 minutes sans Alexander, with everyone finally able relax when it premiered in 2005.
They were left celebrating when it exceeded expectations and cemented itself among the biggest rom-com releases of all time – something that the filmmaker credits the authenticity of the script for.
‘I think the reason Hitch works, the same reason why I think Sweet Home works, is that they are not mean comedies. They’re not comedies with a capital C. They’re funny, but the characters are rooted in reality,’ he said.
‘I tend to think that Hitch is one of those movies that’s funny enough for guys, romantic enough for women, but also romantic enough for guys and funny enough for women. It’s a nice balancing act. And it’s not mean. The low hanging fruit of comedy is to be mean and insulting.
‘He’s not a misogynist, he’s a romantic. I’m a romantic. [Romantic comedies] are hard to do, the world is filled with awful ones so they’re hard to get right, because everybody is so darn cynical about love, about the world, about agendas.
Hitch raked in more than $370million at the global box office (Picture: Shutterstock)‘I think a lot of movies end up relying on, “Well, they’re the two best looking people in the movie, so they’re going to be the ones who fall in love.” Well, that’s lame. That doesn’t apply to anybody, frankly. I’m always interested in what keeps people apart and in Hitch’s case, it’s his own fear.’
Looking at cinematic releases over the last few years, it’s clear that we’re in a dead era for rom-coms – with our hopes for a bit of romance on the big screen resting firmly on the upcoming Bridget Jones sequel.
When asked whether we could see another Hitch on the horizon, Andy admitted: ‘Apparently they’re developing [a sequel], Will is developing a Hitch 2, I hear. Although I was not asked to be involved, so I have no idea what they’re planning to do.’
‘I don’t care. It’s all water under the bridge. It was the best I could do under the circumstances, and the people seem to like it,’ he added of the lack of recognition Hitch often gets.
‘To have an entire civilization laugh at the exact same things, and laugh at themselves, laugh at human behavior, laugh at love, laugh at all of our insecurities. That, to me, is validation enough.’
Metro has contacted Will Smith’s reps for a comment.
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