Martin Lawrence gushes about Will Smith while promoting Bad Boys movie (2024)

Martin Lawrence heaped praised onWill Smithwhile promoting Bad Boys: Ride Or Die on Tuesday's episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on NBC.

Will, 55, and Martin, 59, revealed that originally their parts in the Bad Boys franchise were supposed to go to very different comedians.

'Dana Carvey and Jon Lovitz were the original Bad Boys,' Will said. 'That would have been a very different movie.'

'But it would have been funny,' Martin said.

Will and Martin both reprise their roles in the new Bad Boys: Ride or Die and Will said they had been in eight cities in 12 days for the movie's press tour, so far.

Martin shared that it was actually his sister who suggested that he do the movies with Will.

'I wanted to do it with Eddie Murphy and you know that's my man,' Martin said.

'I'm sitting right here,' Will joked.

'At that time I wanted Eddie for the movie but I couldn't afford Eddie,' Martin revealed.

Martin said his sister suggested Will, so he called him and asked him to come to his house for dinner to discuss the movie.

'After talking to Will for five minutes, sold,' Martin said.

Will said he remembered asking Martin to let him read the script.

'He was like ''nahhhh…the script's not good'',' Will recalled. 'Commit to the idea.'

'It's the best move I ever made,' Martin said. 'I got to tell you this dude is awesome. He's one of the most professional actors out there. The most talented actors out there. He has a brilliant mind. He's a genius. He's upstanding.'

'I mean, he's no Eddie Murphy,' Jimmy, 49, quipped.

'He don't got to be Eddie Murphy. He's Will Smith,' Martin said.

Jimmy asked them about the craziest stunt they ever did in the movies.

'In the second one when you were really driving that car,' Martin said. 'With the cars falling off…'

'I was actually driving the car,' Will said. 'I wanted it to be real. So I get it up to about 120, 130, and I'm punching it and we hit the top of the causeway and we get a little bit airborne but the camera rig is on the side so it's coming down on an angle.'

Will said he was eventually able to brake about 20 yards from slamming into the other cars.

'And I'm on the passenger side and that's when I knew I needed a diaper,' Martin said.

Jimmy then played a clip from the new movie of Martin and Will trying to escape while driving around with a van on fire.

Jimmy then handed Will and Martin microphones and they all sang the Bad Boys theme song Bad Boysby the Jamaican reggae band Inner Circle.

Martin and Will earlier played a 'True Confessions' game with Jimmy. They each read a confessional and had to determine if that confession was the truth or a lie.

Martin read his 'confession' first.

'Jackie Chan asked me to star in Rush Hour with him, but I turned it down,' Martin said.

'Jackie Chan likes Black people,' Will said.

Will asked him where he got the call. Martin said he turned it down because it wasn't enough money. Will said he thought it was true and Martin said it was. Martin said he was happy for Chris Tucker when it came out.

Jimmy went next and said he once had lunch with a famous actor who told him he has 'cotton balls shoved up his rear.'

'Who goes to lunch with cotton balls in their a**?' Will said.

'But as you get older,' Martin said. 'Stuff starts happening with your a**.'

'I'm going to ride with you because we ride together, we die together, bad boys for life,' Will said.

'That is not true,' Jimmy said.

Will went next and said 'I once had to emergency check out of a hotel because of a ghost.' He said it was 27 years ago and the ghost urinated in his friend's toilet and cleared all the messages from his friend's phone. Will said it happened at the Lanesborough Hotel in London.

'We didn't hear it talk so we assumed it was British, but it was scary enough for us to check out of the hotel,' Will said.

Martin said he thought it was true.

'It's 100 percent true,' Will said.

Bad Boys: Ride Or Die is scheduled to be released in US theaters on Friday.