Will Smith Joked About Being Better Than Tom Cruise Until He Found Out That He Wasn’t

Superstar Will Smith is currently on a press tour for his upcoming Bad Boys For Life film, and the actor is breaking down everything that happened behind the scenes. The action-packed sequel had plenty of stunts for Smith to perform alongside his longtime costar Martin Lawrence. The 51-year-old thought he was going to be able to tackle a lot of his own stunts for the film, citing Tom Cruise and his dedication to stunt work in his 50’s. According to Smith, he thought if Cruise could do all the out-of-this-world stunts for the Mission: Impossible films, he could definitely do it for the Bad Boys sequel.

“I’m trying to hang on. There were a couple of the action sequences that I was like ‘oooh.’ I started and I told myself I was doing all of my stunts. I was doing — you know, Tom Cruise was just hanging on the side of an airplane at 50. I was like ‘Man, I’m better than Tom Cruise!’ And I did like two stunts and I was like ‘I’m not better than Tom Cruise!'” Will admitted on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Smith was referring to 2015’s Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation where the movie kicks off with Cruise hanging on the outside of a plane as he attempts to get inside of it just after takeoff. Moviegoers and fans were stunned to find out that Cruise actually did that stunt and it wasn’t performed in front of a green screen.

Cruise has also done some other insane stunts for the franchise including scaling the Burj Khalifa, solo sky diving, and building jumping that resulted in him breaking his ankle while filming Mission: Impossible — Fallout. The shot where Tom legitimately injured himself was used in the movie, and he continued to climb up the side of the building and run off camera despite being seriously hurt.

Since Bad Boys For Life isn’t out in theaters just yet, it’s unknown what kind of crazy stunts Smith and Lawrence might have had to endure during filming, but if the former admitted he couldn’t even complete two of them, he probably won’t be cast in a Mission: Impossible sequel anytime soon.

Despite not being able to go as hard as he might have wanted to while filming, Smith did admit that this movie means a lot to him and he and Lawrence weren’t making the sequel just to make a sequel. The actor admitted to not being happy with several of his sequels in the past, including those to Men in Black, so his dedication to this new film was really something special.

Bad Boys For Life hits theaters on January 17.