The actor was told that he wasn’t allowed to talk to Barry Sonnenfeld about the character.

Vincent D’Onofrio says Men in Black director initially thought his performance was ‘horrible’

The actor was told that he wasn't allowed to talk to Barry Sonnenfeld about the character.

By Derek Lawrence

Derek Lawrence

Derek Lawrence is a former associate editor at **. He left EW in 2022.

EW's editorial guidelines

April 14, 2026 7:02 p.m. ET

Leave a Comment

Vincent D'Onofrio in 'Men in Black'. Credit:

Moviestore/Shutterstock

- Vincent D'Onofrio was told that he could not communicate with *Men in Black* director Barry Sonnenfeld about his performance.

- The actor struggled to figure out how to make the physicality and "weird" dialogue work.

- After seeing D'Onofrio's first take, Sonnenfeld said that was "horrible."

It sure sounds like *Men in Black* director Barry Sonnenfeld wanted to erase his memory of Vincent D'Onofrio's performance — at least at first.

In the 1997 sci-fi blockbuster, D'Onofrio starred as Edgar, an abusive farmer whose body is taken over by a giant alien insect, becoming "the Bug." And while the actor was grateful to be offered the role by producer Stacey Sher, he was taken aback by the condition of attempting such a high-wire act.

"I would have to promise that I would never speak to him about acting or the character or anything that had to do with my performance," D'Onofrio told *GQ *of the message Sher relayed to him from Sonnenfeld. "That I would just say yes and then I would just do it. I had never had a director ask me that before."

D'Onofrio was further baffled as he read the script and the "wonky and weird" lines he had to deliver as an alien wearing a man's skin. He realized that it was all on him to "figure it out." After quickly abandoning his research into insects, he stumbled across an orthopedic store and the employee helped him rig some custom braces to discover the physicality. Then he blended together John Huston in *Chinatown* and George C. Scott in *Dr. Strangelove* to create the creature's memorably strange voice.

Vincent D'Onofrio; Barry Sonnenfeld.

Kristina Bumphrey/Variety/Getty; Aurora Rose/Variety/Penske Media/Getty

Finally, it came time for cameras to roll on the film, which starred Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones as secret government agents who monitor alien activity. And D'Onofrio was halfway through his first scene when Sonnenfeld called cut and cleared the set, causing the future Emmy nominee to think that he was about to be fired.

"He goes, 'Are you going to do that the whole time?'" D'Onofrio recalled Sonnenfeld asking. "And I said to him, 'Yeah, it's pretty much my plan. Like, I don't have a plan B, this really is it.' I think I'm done, it's my last hurrah with Barry. And he said, 'My god, this is horrible.' He just kept shaking his head, and he said, ‘But let's continue and see what happens.'"

Vincent D'Onofrio says 'Daredevil: Born Again' season 2 is 'the most human' we've seen Fisk

'Daredevil' is 'Born Again' as stars preview their Marvel resurrection and season 2 plans (exclusive)

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our ******EW Dispatch newsletter******.***

The two never spoke about it again for the duration of the production, and D'Onofrio continued what he was doing. In the end, the result was an unforgettable turn from D'Onofrio and almost $600 million at the box office, leading to two sequels from Sonnenfield. Years later, the duo finally had a "fantastic" conversation about what went down.

"That was a pretty big amount of trust he put in me to pull that character off for him," D'Onforio said. "And I can never thank him enough for that.”

- Sci-Fi & Fantasy Movies

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Sci-Fi”