Will Smith Slaps Man for Trying to Kiss Him

Love can take over, overwhelm the senses and cause a person to act unceremoniously.

This is fine if your love is directed toward someone who loves you back, but if the object of your affection turns out to be 43-year-old actor Will Smith, you may be biting off more than you can chew.

At the Karo Film movie theater on Friday night, Vitaly Serdyuk learned this the hard way.

During the red carpet entrance and photo shoot for the “Men in Black 3” premiere, Serdyuk, a Ukrainian 1+1 television reporter, approached the actor and moved in for a kiss.

It was unclear whether he was aiming for the lips or the cheek, but Smith took no chances, pushing him away, slapping his cheek with the backside of his hand and saying, “C’mon man, what the hell is your problem buddy?” The Associated Press reported.

Despite the jarring experience, ever-jovial Smith bounced right back and was joking, shaking hands and signing autographs for another five minutes until his fellow dressed-in-black security hustled him to his reserved seat.

Serdyuk was only one of many journalists and fans who were starstruck by Smith’s presence that day.

He first met with journalists in the morning during a news conference at the Ritz-Carlton hotel, and as he entered the room, the energetic pack of reporters couldn’t help but immediately hoot and holler. Fellow actor Josh ­Brolin and director Barry Sonnenfeld received half-hearted receptions at best.

The journalists were charmed by Smith’s animated character, laughing along with every joke. They couldn’t stop smacking their knees when he took the rubles, which Josh Brolin passed to him for complimenting his acting as “a genius performance,” and tossed it to the first few rows of reporters, shouting “just put it on Sony’s bill.”

The journalists were so mesmerized that as the conference ended, at least 25 journalists rushed to the stage like teenage girls at a Justin Bieber concert, pen and notebook at the ready for autographs.

The movie itself, “Men in Black 3,” tries to ride on the back of Smith’s magnetism to entrance fans with the third installment of the “Men in Black” series, but just as Serdyuk was too much journalist for the actor to handle, the task of carrying “Men in Black 3” may also be too much for Smith.

For starters, Smith hadn’t acted since 2008 — a fact Sonnenfeld himself said had scared him. Watching the jump back in time scene, “I’m thinking, ‘he’s not really that good anymore,’” Sonnenfeld said. He waited for him to improve, but finally called for a cut.

But during the break, Smith told Sonnenfeld that he was a little rusty and would get it together. “And he absolutely did,” Sonnenfeld said.

In the movie, Agent J (Will Smith) discovers that someone has gone back in time and killed Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones), so he doesn’t exist in the present. He then travels back in time by leaping from the Chrysler Building and winds up in 1969 New York City.

He then works with a younger Agent K — played by Josh Brolin — so that fans are given a deeper look into the character of Agent K. The movie then carries on as Agent K and Agent J take on retro aliens to once again save the world.

Brolin pulls off a frighteningly impressive performance of mimicking Jones’ Agent K by matching the voice and mannerisms. A fan of “Men in Black” himself, Brolin said he watched the first film 40 to 50 times, analyzing Jones’ behavior and listening over and over again to his voice in order to achieve the final result.