Will Smith says Emancipation costar Ben Foster didn't acknowledge him until the final day of filming

You can add Ben Foster to the growing list of actors who go full method when inhabiting a character.

Will Smith revealed that his costar did not acknowledge or speak to him on set while potraying the role of ruthless slave catcher Jim Fassel in director Antoine Fuqua's Emancipation. The film centers on an enslaved man named Peter (Smith) who flees a plantation in Louisiana and makes a treacherous journey north in an attempt to reunite with his family. It wasn't until the very last day of filming that Foster introduced himself, Smith said during a takeover of wife Jada Pinkett Smith's Facebook Watch series Red Table Talk with children Willow, Jaden, and Trey on Wednesday.

Smith credited Foster for "clicking me into the next gear of depth and focus." Recalling the first day of filming, Smith noted delays, adding "I think we didn't even get a shot the first day. There was lightning. There was heat. We had literally lost an entire day, so I'm doing my thing [with] the extras, like 'Hey thank you very much everybody.' In my mind I was giving my best Will Smith. And Ben just walked past me and didn't say nothing."

"I thought, 'Oh he must not have seen me,'" Smith said. "And then for six months he didn't speak to me. He didn't make eye contact with me. He didn't say a word. He didn't acknowledge me for six months. But what he did that first day, I was like, 'Yup, got it. We're not playing. This is real. We're not fooling around.'" On the final day of filming, Smith recalled, he and Fuqua were are at the monitor looking at a shot when Foster came over.

"He never came over to the monitor ever, so I'm like," Smith said, peering to the side. "He comes to the monitor, he watches the shot, and Antoine said, 'I'm happy. We got it.' And then I look over at Ben, it's his last day, he says, 'Nice to meet you. Ben.'" The anecdote prompted laughter from the Smith children.

Steve Granitz/FilmMagic Ben Foster and Will Smith

Smith previously touched on the anecdote while in conversation with EW alongside his costar and director. "He snapped me to attention," he said. "And I really credit the seriousness and the care and concern that Ben took in playing this character with elevating my performance in the process." Foster added, "My first day on set, I didn't see Will Smith doing Will Smith. I saw a man going deep in, and we didn't need to speak. So for whatever it's worth, I thank you for snapping me in, too."

Watch Smith's Red Table Talk takeover with his children above.

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