Only Tom Cruise and Will Smith could shut down Times Square for their movie scenes.

Moviegoers will clearly remember Michael Keaton wearing only his underpants walking past Times Square in New York for his movie Birdman. The production team could not afford to shut down, so they had to risk everything, including security. Such was not the case with Tom Cruise and Will Smith.

Tom Cruise and Will Smith

Cruise and Smith have immaculate influence in Hollywood with the ability to do what is unthinkable for other celebrities. Shutting down Times Square for filming movie scenes was not an easy task, while several celebrities have filmed their respective movies in the iconic place, shutting it down for their convenience was beyond anyone’s dream.

Emptying the NYC Times Square For A Tom Cruise Movie Scene

Tom Cruise in the Times Square scene in Vanilla Sky

Tom Cruise has been Hollywood’s one of most popular leading stars, and since his debut in 1981 in Franco Zeffirelli’s movie Endless Love, the actor has forged his way into the industry. Cruise went on to have an astounding influence in the following years, enjoying his time in the industry as a Hollywood elite. Speaking of emptying the New York City Times Square, writer/director of Vanilla Sky Cameron Crowe told Variety (via The Playlist) about the scene. “Very early on, our producers Don Lee and Paula Wagner and Tom Cruise went to see Rudy Giuliani and his people to see if we could do this,” Crowe said. However, the New York Mayor at the time had one condition,

“I said, ‘Great news! What’s the condition?’ And they said, ‘You! Somebody there has done some research on you, and heard that you do a lot of takes.’ I was like, ‘What?! I’m a thorough director, but this intel is in the mayor’s office?’ They were like, ‘Yeah, somebody there is worried. They don’t want you in Times Square running around with Tom Cruise, with you shooting stuff, with no clear plan,’” the director revealed.
Fortunately for the production team, they had three hours on a Sunday morning to film the scene in the movie after spending a million dollars for the scene. After multiple takes, they had about one hour and 15 minutes left, but there was no waste of time, Cruise proposed the idea of running around for more takes in the empty Times Square.

Will Smith’s I Am Legend Paid A Huge Sum to Shut Down Times Square 

Will Smith in I Am Legend

There is no easy way to make the New York City Times Square look empty. It has been one of the dense and busy places and tourist destinations. Will Smith starrer Francis Lawrence’s post-apocalyptic horror movie required empty streets to film, and one scene included Times Square. Compared to I Am Legend, Vanilla Sky got the place empty quite easily and paid far too less. Of course, for the I Am Legend crew, it was a mammoth task to pull off the scene.

Lawrence insisted on filming the movie under natural light. Further, the scene required abandoned cars and other elements to make it look like nature has overtaken the world. Of course, a good amount of CGI was used in the 2007 action sci-fi to remove any signs of life, add extra layers of decay, and several other aspects. Regardless, filming the movie in the iconic place costs a huge sum. As per NY Mag, the movie had to spend a whopping $40 million from its production budget to empty the Square. Thankfully police helped the crew to keep civilians and traffic out of frame.