Will Smith wished his 'ride or die' friend and co-star Martin Lawrence a happy 59th birthday on Instagram this week.
The pair have been the leads of the Bad Boys movie franchise since its original instalment in 1995, and have just finished shooting the fourth film.
Now, as they prepare for the release of Bad Boys: Ride Or Die this June, Will shared his affection for Martin with a heartwarming Instagram album.
He posted a handful of throwback shots showing the two of them through the years, including one where they fist-bumped the camera together.
At the end of the album, Will featured an MTV clip from 1994 of him and Martin performing a comedy sketch to promote the very first Bad Boys movie.
Will Smith wished his 'ride or die' friend and co-star Martin Lawrence a happy birthday on Instagram this week
He posted a handful of throwback shots showing the two of them through the years, including one where they fist-bumped the camera together
'Happy Bday to my Ride or Die @martinlawrence! Me and Marty Mar are 'bout to get on a plane and run up on y'all for @badboys, BE READY!!' Will wrote in the caption
During that time, Will and Martin were starring on separate sitcoms - the former on The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air and the latter on Martin.
The MTV clip showed the two men on the set of Bad Boys in Miami, with Will in a full police uniform and Martin in a simple t-shirt and trousers.
Bad Boys is a buddy cop movie, and so its co-leads began by acting out a scene of a man approaching a policeman and pleading for help.
'I need a cop!' Martin wailed, complaining that someone 'hit me in the eye,' to which Will yelled: 'Where is he?' and reached for his gun.
The two men then broke character and Martin turned to the camera, gesturing and announcing: 'Ladies and gentlemen, Will Smith.'
Martin then introduced himself and his co-star as being 'from different networks,' pointing out that Will, at 6'2", was 'tall,' while he himself, at 5'7", was 'short.'
Will tried to reassure Martin, insisting he was 'not short' but just 'pleasantly petite,' and a grateful Martin gave 'my partner' a hug.
Posting the old clip to Instagram along with the throwback pictures this Tuesday, Will wrote: 'Happy Bday to my Ride or Die @martinlawrence! Me and Marty Mar are 'bout to get on a plane and run up on y'all for @badboys, BE READY!!'
At the end of the album, Will featured an MTV clip from 1994 of him and Martin performing a comedy sketch to promote the very first Bad Boys movie
Bad Boys is a buddy cop movie, and so its co-leads began by acting out a scene of a man approaching a policeman and pleading for help
During that time, Will and Martin were starring on separate sitcoms - the former on The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air and the latter on Martin
Will tried to reassure Martin, insisting he was 'not short' but just 'pleasantly petite,' and a grateful Martin gave 'my partner' a hug
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Will is currently mounting a career comeback after retreating from the public eye when he was heaped with criticism for his Oscars slap.
He stormed onstage at the 2022 Oscars and struck Chris Rock across the face for making a bald joke about Will's wife Jada Pinkett Smith, who had shaved her head because she has alopecia.
Last year, while promoting her new memoir, Jada announced that she and Will had in fact been privately separated since 2016.
However she also shared that she had renewed their commitment because of the Oscars slap, declaring that they were now 'working' on the marriage.
'When I was sitting at the Oscars, it clicked in. As soon as I was like: "Oh snap, you hit Chris?"' Jada explained during an interview with Vanity Fair.
'I was like, I'm riding with you. I didn't come into this place as your wife, but I'm leaving here as your wife because we got a storm we're going to have to deal with together. I am not gonna leave your side.'
Her marriage to Will fell under public scrutiny in 2020, when she interviewed him on her chat show Red Table Talk about an 'entanglement' she had four years earlier with the much younger singer August Alsina.
The relationship became even more notorious over the Oscars slap, which went viral all over the world and cast a shadow over Will's career.
Martin and Will are pictured in Miami in late February this year shooting their upcoming buddy cop movie Bad Boys: Ride Or Die, which is slated for release on June 7
Martin and Will are pictured in the 1995 original Bad Boys movie, which starred them as narcotics detectives in the Miami Police
Less than an hour after his outburst, Will was awarded the best actor Oscar and received a standing ovation for his tearful speech in which he called himself a protector of his family and expressed a desire to be a 'vessel of love.'
After the awards, he went to the Vanity Fair Oscar Party and danced to his own song Gettin' Jiggy Wit It while other partygoers cheered him on.
However, backlash mounted over the following days, to the point Will resigned from the Academy and was later banned from attending the Oscars for 10 years.
Jada finally addressed the slap that June on an alopecia-themed episode of her show Red Table Talk, urging Will and Chris to patch up their differences.
'Now, about Oscar night,' she said: 'my deepest hope is that these two intelligent, capable men have an opportunity to heal, talk this out and reconcile.'