And so when I got to the movie, you know, I liked “Independence Day” a lot and I liked “Men in Black” a lot, and I liked “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” and “Six Degrees of Separation”—let’s not forget that Will starred in this big drama for his screen debut—he was the big Black star. I’ve gone through many Black stars growing up. I had Richard Pryor, and at that moment, I had Will Smith. So I went to see it. And I just was like… I was numb watching this movie. I had no idea what the hell was going on. We can talk about this a little later, but watching it now, I see a lot of things I didn’t see before that are interesting. That doesn’t make the movie any better, but it makes it more interesting in terms of what I got out of it. Also, I’ve seen more episodes of “The Wild Wild West” because it’s on TV every Saturday on one of these throwback television channels. The show is awful.
I forgot about the Burger King toys. Tell me about those, what were those like?
Robert: One of them was Kevin Kline on his little bike/motorcycle, and you could rev him up and he would zoom across the floor. The other one was the mechanical spider, and there was one with Salma Hayek on a stagecoach. There was also one with Will Smith on his horse. My aunt worked at Burger King, and I vividly remember asking: Could you please get me these toys?
Odie: You had an in! You had somebody to bring you some Burger King toys. Much better than when I got a Happy Meal back in the day. [Laughs] But the movie tie-in to this is interesting because there was a movie tie-in to “Men in Black,” and I think it was Burger King that did it. I don’t think there was one for “Independence Day.” But it’s interesting if we think about this, just from a purely Black perspective. You have Will Smith making toys for the glut of white kids that are gonna buy them. And the impetus is Will Smith, a Black actor. I think that’s fascinating, especially now, looking back, this is 25 years ago, but they wouldn’t have made a “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” Happy Meal with Sidney [Poitier]. Although, I would’ve bought it just because I’m a sick person.
Robert: This was the height of Will’s marketability, particularly to white people. This is the height of his “crossover” stardom. They wanted to buy a toy with him on that horse, who, by the way, we don’t see for the rest of the film. He just abandons the horse!
Odie: But here’s the funny thing: I remember when Will Smith wore the cowboy hat, and he’s got the white suit on for the “Wild Wild West” video. And watching this, I looked at Will Smith and I saw Django. I wonder if this is the reason why Tarantino wanted Will Smith to play Django in the first place. I also saw, and I can’t believe I didn’t catch this back then…I also saw Sweet, Sweetback.