David Schwimmer Admits Turning Down “Men in Black ”Role Was 'Brutal Decision': 'You Have to Follow Your Gut'

"My career might have taken a very different trajectory," said the 'Friends' star

David Schwimmer is getting candid about opting against taking a Men in Black role.

During an appearance on the Origins with Cush Jumbo podcast, the actor-director recalled to host Cush Jumbo that he was offered one of the leading roles in 1997's Men in Black at the exact same time he planned to direct his first movie, 1998's Since You've Been Gone.

"So that was a brutal decision," Schwimmer recalled, explaining the opportunity came just after he finished filming 1996's The Pallbearer with Gwyneth Paltrow, one of his first major roles outside of Friends.

"There were high expectations of that, which didn’t come true," he said with a laugh. "It was kind of a bomb. But there were high expectations and the studio, which was Miramax, wanted to lock me into a three-picture deal at a fixed price and I said I would do that if I got to direct my first movie."

Schwimmer said after months of negotiations, he and Miramax agreed he would act in three additional movies for the studio and he would direct actors from his own theater company.

"All my best friends in the world in my theater company quit their jobs so they could be in this film over the summer, which was going to be a six-week shoot in Chicago," he recalled.

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Schwimmer's offer to star in Men in Black, the sci-fi action blockbuster that ultimately starred Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, came just as he was finalizing pre-production for Since You've Been Gone.

"It was a direct conflict with — this was my summer window from Friends, I had a four-month hiatus, and Men in Black was going to shoot exactly when I was going to direct this film with my company."

"Of course it was an amazing opportunity," the Little Death actor added. "I mean, you have to follow your gut, you have to follow your heart. And look, I mean I'm really aware — whatever, 20 years later, maybe more — that would have made me, I think, a movie star. If you look at the success of that film and that franchise, I would — my career might have taken a very different trajectory."

Related: Cole Sprouse Says He’s Never Reunited with Friends Cast Since Playing David Schwimmer’s Son on Hit Show (Exclusive)

While Schwimmer did admit on the podcast that he is not sure "if I made the right choice," he noted that his friends at the theater company (the actor co-founded Chicago's Lookingglass Theatre Company in the '90s) may never have forgiven him for skipping out on Since You've Been Gone

"My theater company and that relationship with all of those people would probably have ended. I don't think it would have recovered," he said. "I mean, those people had quit their jobs to do that movie."

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