But I had real comic talent in my two stars.

Bay of course meansMartin LawrenceandWill Smith.

Live From Miami, Its Saturday Night!

Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in Bad Boys II poster

In the 1980s, there were no greater kingmakers thanJerry Bruckheimerand Don Simpson.

So Bay, still at the time making commercials for Coke and the Got Milk?

campaign, took any meeting he could get with Bruckheimer and Simpson.

The main project in the works was calledBulletproof Hearts, an action/comedy package forDisney.

The intended stars ofBulletproof Hearts?

Dana Carvey as Mike Lowery and Jon Lovitz as Marcus Burnett.

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Of course that now seems crazy.

His other hit, in fact, was a two-hander with fellowSNLalumni Dan Aykroyd inTrading Places.

Gallo had come off a few successful buddy comedies, including Brian De PalmasWise Guysand Martin BrestsMidnight Run.

And Gallo wanted to put Lovitz and Carvey into his next buddy comedyBulletproof Hearts.

All they needed was to pull it together.

But then the stars met with the producers and everything fell apart.

How and why it fell apart is up for debate.

On a 2020 episode of the podcastLiterally!

In Lovitzs words, Josephson said they should switch it up, resulting in he and Carvey moving on.

Carvey and Lovitz, Watcha Gonna Do?

But we can guess at the version ofBad Boyswith Carvey and Lovitz in the lead.

On the other hand, Carveys a lot harder to picture as Mike Lowrey.

Furthermore, Bay compensated for shortcomings in Gallos script by letting Smith and especially Lawrence improvise.

The script was so white, Bay recalls on theBad Boyscommentary track.

It would only get more white with its original leads.

According to an anecdote Smith likes to share whenever he gets the chance,Bad Boysmade him a star.

Despite Bays assurances that the scene would look amazing, Smith balked, leading to an on-set disagreement.

They ended up on a compromise, with Smith wearing an opened button-down for the run.

Hard to imagine the same happening with either Carvey or Lovitz.

Bad Boys: Ride or Die is now in theaters.