Will Smith Let Out a Fart 'So Bad' the “Men in Black” Set Had to Be 'Evacuated' for 'Three Hours,' Says Director

"Will Smith is a farter,” Barry Sonnenfeld told Kelly Ripa

Will Smith was getting gassy with it on the set of Men in Black, according to the film’s director.

Barry Sonnenfeld, who directed the 1997 intergalactic action blockbuster, appeared as a guest on the Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa podcast on Wednesday, Oct. 2. During their conversation, released the day after Sonnenfeld's new book Best Possible Place, Worst Possible Time was released, he shared a little-known fact about the Academy Award winner, 56.

Sonnenfeld, 71, recalled that Smith and his costar Tommy Lee Jones, who portrays Agent K, were filming a scene where a car they were traveling in at super high speeds transforms.

To get the shot, Jones, 78, and Smith, playing Agent J, needed to be “hermetically sealed” in the pod that was being used as their mode of transportation.

“There are locks to prevent it from opening and falling,” Sonnenfeld told Ripa, 54. “I say, ‘Roll camera,’ and I hear Will Smith go, ‘Oh Jesus, so sorry. Tommy, so sorry. Baz, get the ladder.’ And you hear Tommy saying, ‘That’s fine, Will. No worries, Will. Don’t worry, Will.’ ”

According to the director, he was clueless as to what prompted the apologies.

“So we race the ladder over. Yeah, Tommy reaches his leg out as the ladder is coming over, races down the stairs. And what happened was, Will Smith is a farter,” Sonnenfeld alleged.

Related: What Happened When Tommy Lee Jones Tried to Be Funny in Men in Black: 'You Only Want Will Smith to Get Laughs' (Exclusive)

“It’s just some people are [farters].”

Still, being stuck “inside a very small hermetically sealed space with a Will Smith fart” might not be the best place to be, the Enchanted director continued.

“You don’t even want to be sitting next to him at the Disney ranch," Sonnenfeld said. “We evacuated the stage for about three hours. And that’s incredible. No, he’s, you know, a lovely guy. Just, he farts. Some do, some don’t."

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One thing Smith’s gas couldn’t overpower was the film’s success. Men in Black grossed $584 million worldwide, becoming the third-highest-grossing movie of 1997.

Smith and Sonnenfeld went on to work together on Wild Wild West (1999), Men in Black II (2002) and Men in Black 3 (2012).

Before becoming the A-list actor he is today, the “Gettin' Jiggy Wit It” hitmaker got his start in music before transitioning to television in the 1990s sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

And though his Fresh Prince costars may not have fart stories like Sonnenfeld, they do have fond memories.

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Speaking to PEOPLE in June, Alfonso Ribeiro (who played Smith’s uppity cousin Carlton Banks) referred to Smith as his “brother” while sharing the impact they made on each other’s lives.

“There's so many relationships that were created then that still are incredibly impactful in our lives today,” Ribeiro, 53, told PEOPLE. “It meant everything in the world. It changed all of our lives.”

Sonnenfeld's book Best Possible Time, Worst Possible Placeincludes more behind-the-scenes stories from the director's career. It is published by Hachette Books and was released on Oct. 1.

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