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Michael Jackson Convinced ‘Men in Black II’ Director To Not Make Him an Alien so He Could Wear the Suit

When “Men in Black” was released in 1997, film became a box-office success, starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones as operatives who monitor alien life forms on Earth. It even amused the King of Pop.

When it came time to begin on the sequel, “Men in Black II,” director Barry Sonnenfeld said they got a call from a fan of the franchise, Michael Jackson, who wanted to be in the film.

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“He approached us,” Sonnenfeld told Insider on the 25th anniversary of the first film.

The plan was for Jackson to make a brief appearance in “MiB II,” but Sonnenfeld’s original plan for how he would appear in the film fell through.

“I was going to make him an alien and he said, ‘No, I want to wear the ‘Men in Black’ suit,'” Sonnenfeld recalled. “So we figured out how to do that and it worked out. He was lovely.”

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Jackson appears about halfway through the film. Jackson arrives on the big board at the Men in Black headquarters wearing the MiB outfit from an area that appears to be densely populated with penguins in the background.

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Jackson inquires about a post promised to him by Zed (Rip Torn), the chief of the MiB, claiming that he can be “Agent M.”

When Smith’s character, J, visits the headquarters for the first time in “Men in Black” Jones’ character, K, tells him how the board allows them to maintain tabs on the aliens residing on Earth.

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The board reveals that people like Al Roker, Sylvester Stallone, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Danny DeVito are all aliens.

“I wanted to have people up there that made you go, ‘Yeah, he could be an alien,'” Sonnenfeld said.


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