Will Smith became involved in the acting industry when he starred as a fictionalized version of himself in the 1990s sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Years later, Smith's film career began with the 1995 film Bad Boys, and he gained further recognition as James Darrell Edwards III, aka Agent J, opposite Tommy Lee Jones in the 1997 film Men in Black. And as if that wasn't enough, Smith was also successful in the music industry as a duo with DJ Jazzy Jeff, who also starred in The Fresh Prince.
Smith's music experience allowed him to compose a lead single called "Men in Black" for the film's soundtrack. However, his lead role and hit single almost didn't happen because he wasn't the first actor considered for Agent J. In fact, the part almost went to another 1990s sitcom actor from the NBC series Friends.
Men in Black, loosely based on a comic book series of the same name, followed the lives of two secret agents from a top-secret organization whose tasks were to fend off evil extraterrestrial lifeforms and keep an eye on aliens living on Earth. The film received its first sequel in 2002, but it got met with heavy criticism. The third film fared better, but the 2019 reboot film, Men in Black: International, which featured Chris Hemsworth as the lead instead of Smith, didn't land for critics or fans.
But before Smith became the face of the Men in Black franchise, the role of Agent J got offered to David Schwimmer, who played Dr. Ross Geller on Friends. Ross was Rachel's (Jennifer Aniston) paleontologist love interest, who couldn't give up that they were "on a break." And Schwimmer likely would have made it huge in the film industry had he accepted the role of Agent J since the popularity of his NBC series was at an all-time high.
Unlike Jennifer Aniston's extensive repertoire of successful films, Schwimmer didn't make but a few projects in the 1990s. However, according to a conversation with Schwimmer by The Hollywood Reporter, he couldn't star in Men in Black due to a prior commitment with the Lookingglass company. He was attached to direct and star in the 1998 TV film Since You've Been Gone, about a 10-year high school reunion, and he recalled that "it wasn’t even like a choice" to consider the Men in Black part.
Thankfully, that wasn't the last audiences saw of Schwimmer. Since his stint on Friends, Schwimmer has voiced Melman the Giraffe in the Madagascar franchise and portrayed Robert Kardashian in The People v. O.J. Simpson. His performance as the late lawyer even earned him a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. Schwimmer may not have been able to pull off the swagger Smith brought to Agent J, but it would have made his career look very different.