‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ Was Just as Dramatic Off-Screen

It’s been nearly 20 years since the hit film Mr. & Mrs. Smith first premiered, a solid action-comedy with behind-the-scenes rumors that altered pop-culture forever. The film, directed by Doug Liman, centered around John and Jane Smith, unforgettably played by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. The Smiths were two halves of a seemingly boring, not-so-happily married couple, each hiding their secret identities — assassins! — from the other. The setup worked well enough, until a bungled mission ensured that their next targets were the last people they ever would have expected: each other.

It’s a dramatic premise, to be sure, and the result is a truly entertaining movie that is just as fun to watch today as it was in 2005. In fact, one of Prime Video’s latest series is an update of the movie of the same starring Donald Glover and Maya Erskine in Pitt and Jolie’s roles. It’s nearly impossible to bring up the notorious film without mentioning Pitt and Jolie’s life offscreen, whose nickname Brangelina was created specifically when rumors started that the pair was having an affair during filming. From scheduling conflicts and casting changes to difficult directors and a possible international incident, documenting the making of Mr. & Mrs. Smith would have been just as wild a film as the one they ended up releasing.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith

PG-13

Action

Comedy

Crime

A bored married couple is surprised to learn that they are both assassins hired by competing agencies to kill each other.

Release Date

June 10, 2005

Director

Doug Liman

Cast

Brad Pitt , Angelina Jolie , Adam Brody​ , Vince Vaughn , Kerry Washington , Keith David

Runtime

120 minutes

Main Genre

Action

Writers

Simon Kinberg

Studio

20th Century Fox

Nicole Kidman Was Supposed to Star With Brad Pitt

When thinking of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, the first image that comes to mind is one of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie standing back to back. The two are such natural fits for their roles, but in reality, their match came about after quite a few rounds of recasting. Pitt, already an action star, was attached to the film from its inception, but was originally slated to star across from Nicole Kidman, who had to bow out due to a scheduling conflict with her film The Stepford Wives. Her departure led to Pitt’s, and the directorial team considered everyone from Will Smith and Catherine Zeta Jones to Johnny Depp and Cate Blanchett in their search for the perfect John and Jane. Even Gwen Stefani made it into the casting room, but it was only when Angelina Jolie was called in (and signed on), that Pitt re-entered the picture.

It was once the two started filming, however, that the true frenzy around the film began. At the time, Brad Pitt was married to Jennifer Aniston, and as rumors began swirling of Pitt and Jolie getting closer, America’s golden couple seemed to be on the brink of disaster. Cue the paparazzi, hoards of them, flying in with helicopters and lining the highways. They were listening in on the set’s walkie-talkies in hopes of getting any inside information, and production was told that a single picture of the two leads could be worth as much as $300,000.

When Pitt and Aniston announced their separation, just six months before the film’s premiere, the craze only intensified. As we now know, the rumored affair was true: Brad Pitt and Angeline Jolie went public with their relationship just a month after Mr. & Mrs. Smith premiered, and remained together until September 2016, when they officially filed for divorce. Their relationship became central to the film’s press. No matter what you think of the relationship drama, it’s hard to ignore the impact the resulting pop culture hysteria had on Mr. & Mrs. Smith box office success.

‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ Had Many Scheduling Issues

The media wasn’t the only thing hindering Mr. & Mrs. Smith‘s progress behind-the-scenes — there were plenty of logistical hoops to jump through as well during its production. With an initial month-long delay due to issues building the set, filming officially started in January 2004. It became clear, however, that in order to accommodate Pitt’s prior injury he sustained while on the set of his film Troy, further scheduling changes would be required. More critically, Pitt had to leave production for several months in order to shoot Ocean’s Twelve, the second installment director Steven Soderbergh‘s hit franchise.

Stopping and restarting a shoot is extraordinarily expensive, and Mr. & Mrs. Smith director Doug Liman took a gamble, betting that a movie as big as Ocean’s Twelve wouldn’t start on its initial date. He was unfortunately wrong, and with Pitt contractually committed to be there for filming, Mr. & Mrs. Smith had to take a three-month pause. Add Liman’s disorganized shooting style, with full days of shooting being completely scrapped, new sets being built at the last minute, and 40-50 alternate endings being written (of course, it was the original ending that was used in the end), and the film came in at a whopping $26 million over budget.

‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ Offended the Colombian Government

Mr. & Mrs. Smith was a spectacle stateside every step of the way, but it also made a surprising international impact — specifically, in Bogotá, Colombia. The film’s initial scenes show John and Jane meeting for the first time in the Latin American city, in a rundown hotel where they pretend to be together to avoid a police force looking for solo travelers. It’s a scene with its own kind of magic, but one that is set in a vastly different Bogotá than the one in real life. At least, that’s how Enrique Borda felt, who was the general secretary of the Bogotá Mayor’s Office at the time.

After watching the film, he sent a letter to Liman expressing his anger at the “total level of ignorance” in their representation of the bustling city, which has a population of over 8 million citizens. He claimed that the film showed a capital that was “backward, with little hotel infrastructure…with high levels of violence, ultimately totally chaotic and not at all attractive.” Borda ended his letter with an invitation for Liman and the film’s producer Arnold Micham, to see that Bogotá was “nothing like the negative image reflected” in their movie. With all these stories considered, the making of Mr. & Mrs. Smith truly feels like a feat. With casting and scheduling changes, pop culture hysteria, and international criticism, one can only be impressed that Liman, along with the rest of the film’s cast and crew, was able to make a film so genuinely entertaining.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith is available to rent or buy on Prime Video in the U.S.

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