<p id=”par-1_42″><a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tag/will-smith/”>Will Smith</a> struggled in <em>Hitch </em>for many more reasons than having to <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/why-will-smith-struggled-to-kiss-eva-mendes-in-hitch.html/”>kiss his co-star Eva Mendes</a>. Smith expected that his first romcom wouldn’t be much of a success. But ironically, it became one of his most successful and critically acclaimed projects.</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-will-smith-clashed-with-hitch-director-over-the-film-s-vision”>Will Smith clashed with ‘Hitch’ director over the film’s vision</h2>
<figure class=”wp-block-image size-full” id=”emb-1″><img decoding=”async” src=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Hitch-Will-Smith.webp?strip=all&quality=80″ alt=”Will Smith posing with Andrew Tennant, Amber Valetta, Eva Mendes and Kevin James.” class=”wp-image-3782118″><figcaption class=”wp-element-caption”>Andrew Tennant, Amber Valetta, Will Smith, Eva Mnedes, and Kevin James | Stephane Cardinale-Corbis via Getty Images</figcaption></figure>
<p id=”par-2_77″>Smith proved he could do comedy and romance in many projects, including <em>The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air</em>. But he admitted that he <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/will-smith-avoided-starring-rom-coms-after-falling-love-stockard-channing-six-degrees-separation.html/”>avoided doing a pure romantic comedy</a> for the longest time. He didn’t want to risk sparking a real romance with a co-star by dipping his toe in the genre. He’d already fallen for an actor on a film set years before <em>Hitch</em>. Romcoms potentially presented a scenario where that kind of experience could happen again.</p>
<p id=”par-3_111″>“You know, you’re doing a scene, and you’re kissing, kissing, kissing, and then they say ‘cut,’ and you can’t just snatch off when they say ‘cut,’ you know? Because you really have to let your mind go to that space where ‘I’m in love with this person,’” Smith once said according to <a href=”https://www.blackfilm.com/20040709/features/willsmith.shtml”>Black Film</a>. “That’s what you do, you hypnotize yourself into believing those scenes and the emotions and all of that and I guess part of it was not being good enough of an actor to draw those lines well, like for example, on <em>Six Degrees of Separation</em>, that’s probably the most lost in character that I have ever been.”</p>
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<p id=”par-4_69″>Smith would take a chance to do that with <em>Hitch</em>, which <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/will-smith-revealed-hitch-mirrored-real-life-dating-disaster-childhood-girlfriend.html/”>mirrored a real-life incident</a> that happened to him in the past. However, Smith might’ve soon thought doing <em>Hitch </em>was a mistake. In an interview with <a href=”https://www.businessinsider.com/hitch-will-smith-director-behind-the-scenes-interview-2025-1″>Business Insider</a>, director Andy Tennant revealed that he butted heads with Smith over the film’s creative direction. Tennant even feared he’d lose his job at one point due to his and Smith’s arguments.</p>
<p id=”par-5_42″>“There was a draft that Will brought in that I was not a fan of. I finally told the studio that I was more afraid of Will making that version of the movie than I was about them firing me,” Tennant said.</p>
<p id=”par-6_44″> “When we wrapped, Will walked off the set, didn’t say goodbye to me, didn’t say anything. He just left. I think he felt the same way I did. He thought this movie is a disaster. We wrapped and it was depressing,” he added.</p>
<p id=”par-7_13″>Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, helped diffuse the situation from getting any worse.</p>
<p id=”par-8_29″>“She kind of seconded some of my instincts. There was a time during prep when I was pushing back. A lot of crazy s*** that was happening,” Tennant said.</p>
<p id=”par-9_17″>However, Tennant agreed that the film they made ended up being better than both of their visions.</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-hitch-director-claims-he-won-t-be-involved-in-a-potential-sequel-with-will-smith”>‘Hitch’ director claims he won’t be involved in a potential sequel with Will Smith</h2>
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<iframe title=”Hitch: Ben Gives Hitch Some Advice He Refuses To Take (MOVIE SCENE) | With Captions” width=”925″ height=”520″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/GyBxV5l_8Ro?feature=oembed” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen></iframe>
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<p id=”par-10_62″>There have been rumblings that Smith’s <em>Hitch </em>story would continue in some form of another. <a href=”https://deadline.com/2014/10/hitch-series-fox-will-smith-857697/”>Deadline</a> once reported that Smith was developing a television show based on the film back in 2014. However, the project didn’t seem to come to fruition. Not too long ago, Mendes spilled that she would’ve been interested in <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/eva-mendes-has-an-idea-for-a-hitch-sequel-but-would-will-smith-be-interested.html/”>doing another <em>Hitch</em></a>, furthering the conversation of a sequel.</p>
<p id=”par-11_21″>“You know what? It’s time for a <em>Hitch 2</em>. Will, let’s do this. <em>Hitch 2</em>,” Mendes said in a 2020 interview with <a href=”https://www.etonline.com/eva-mendes-reveals-why-she-wants-to-play-a-disney-villain-for-her-kids-exclusive-142120″>ET</a>.</p>
<p id=”par-12_47″>It seems that Tennant has all but confirmed that Smith may be quietly developing the <em>Hitch</em> sequel. But it’s unlikely that he’ll be a part of the project should it ever see the light of day. Still, Tennant harbors no ill will towards Smith for the snub.</p>
<p id=”par-13_33″> “I don’t have anything against Will. He hired me to make this movie. It was not an easy job for anybody, but we went around the world with the movie,” he said.</p>