Vincent D'Onofrio nearly thought he was getting fired on the set of Men in Black.
According to People, the actor, who played Edgar the Bug in the 1997 blockbuster, recently revealed that director Barry Sonnenfeld hated what he saw the first time D'Onofrio performed the role. According to D'Onofrio, Sonnenfeld stopped filming midway through the actor's first scene, cleared the set, and told him his performance was “horrible.”
Instead of shutting the idea down completely, however, the director decided to keep filming and see where it went.
The unusual dynamic between the two men started long before cameras rolled. D'Onofrio said a producer warned him that Sonnenfeld wanted him for the role, but only under one condition: he could never discuss the character, the performance, or any acting choices with the director.
D'Onofrio agreed, despite having no idea how he was going to play an alien cockroach disguised as a farmer.
That left the actor to build Edgar almost entirely on his own. D'Onofrio eventually came up with the character's awkward, broken-down walk after visiting an orthopedic store and creating custom leg braces with knee supports, duct tape, and paint sticks.
He wore the makeshift braces around his house for weeks as he developed the physicality of a giant alien crammed into a human body.
For the voice, he pulled inspiration from John Huston's performance in Chinatown and George C. Scott in Dr. Strangelove.
When D'Onofrio finally stepped in front of the camera for Edgar's first barn scene, Sonnenfeld had no idea what was coming. After stopping the scene twice, the director reportedly asked, “Are you going to do that the whole time?” D'Onofrio told him that he was.
“Yeah, it's pretty much my plan,” the actor recalled saying. “Like, I don't have a plan B.”
Sonnenfeld responded bluntly.
“‘My God, this is horrible. It's horrible,'” D'Onofrio remembered the director telling him.
Even so, Sonnenfeld chose not to intervene. The pair never discussed the performance again for the rest of the shoot, and D'Onofrio continued to play Edgar exactly as he had envisioned him.
That decision paid off. Nearly 30 years later, Edgar the Bug remains one of the most memorable villains in the Men in Black franchise. D'Onofrio's twitchy movements, slurred speech, and collapsing skin suit became a standout part of the film, which grossed more than $580 million worldwide and helped turn Men in Black into one of the defining sci-fi comedies of the 1990s.
The role also arrived during one of the busiest stretches of D'Onofrio's career. He had already earned acclaim for Full Metal Jacket and would later become known to television audiences as Detective Robert Goren on Law & Order: Criminal Intent and, more recently, Wilson Fisk in Marvel's Daredevil series.
Looking back, D'Onofrio said Sonnenfeld's refusal to interfere was ultimately an act of trust.
“Let's continue and see what happens,” the director told him that day.
For D'Onofrio, that was enough.
