A man who says he was Will Smith's closest friend for nearly four decades is now trying to drag the actor into a courtroom fight with his wife, filing a request for Smith to sit for a deposition in a $3 million lawsuit alleging Jada Pinkett Smith threatened him with physical harm.
Bilaal Salaam, who is representing himself in the case, emailed a judge on July 7 asking the court to compel Will Smith's testimony, Page Six reported after obtaining legal documents in the case. Jada Pinkett Smith's attorneys pushed back immediately, telling Salaam in a response that Will Smith "is not a party to this litigation" and that "there is nothing to meet and confer about."
A hearing in the case is scheduled for Aug. 19. Jada's legal team told Salaam he would need to follow formal subpoena procedures to obtain testimony from a non-party witness, a step he apparently has not yet taken. Representatives for both Jada, 54, and Will, 57, did not respond to requests for comment.
Salaam filed the lawsuit in November 2025, claiming intentional infliction of emotional distress. At its center is an alleged confrontation at Will Smith's birthday party on Sept. 25, 2021, at a venue called Regency Calabasas Common in the Los Angeles suburb of Calabasas, California.
According to court documents obtained by Fox News, Salaam alleged that Jada Pinkett Smith approached him in the lobby with roughly seven members of her entourage, "became verbally aggressive, and threatened Plaintiff by stating that if he continued telling her personal business, he would end up missing or catch a bullet." The lawsuit states she also demanded he sign a non-disclosure agreement "or else."
Salaam alleged the threats continued as he walked to his car.
The lawsuit also claims a second chapter of retaliation. After Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the 2022 Academy Awards, Rock had been joking about Jada on stage, Salaam says he was asked to help manage the fallout. He refused. Court documents state that another associate, Duane Martin, "warned Plaintiff that he would face serious problems with Defendant Jada Pinkett Smith for refusing to help." Salaam alleges a broader retaliatory campaign followed.
Jada Pinkett Smith has denied every allegation. In February, the former "Red Table Talk" host publicly addressed the lawsuit, calling Salaam's claims "false, uncorroborated, and made to generate attention as part of an ongoing public campaign of harassment directed at" herself and her family. She described Salaam as having a "fixation" on her family and said she had not even mentioned his name at the time of the alleged 2021 confrontation.
Her legal team has gone on offense. In April, Jada's attorneys demanded that Salaam cover $49,000 in legal fees. They have also challenged the substance of his case, requesting that he produce medical records to support his emotional distress claim and turn over recorded communications he says he possesses from people who were present when the alleged threats occurred.
Salaam's request to take the case to trial has already been denied, though the lawsuit itself remains active ahead of the August hearing.
The deposition fight comes as Will Smith faces his own legal headaches. In a separate case filed in Los Angeles, violinist Brian King Joseph, a 2018 "America's Got Talent" competitor, sued Smith for sexual harassment, alleging Smith groomed him during his 2025 concert tour. Joseph claims someone broke into his hotel room during the Las Vegas leg of the tour, leaving behind a handwritten note, HIV medication, and other items. After reporting the incident, Joseph says Smith's team fired him and accused him of fabricating the story. Smith's representatives have not publicly addressed the substance of that lawsuit.
Neither case has reached trial. But together they paint a picture of a celebrity household under mounting legal pressure from people who once moved in its inner circle.
Salaam is handling his own case without an attorney, a significant disadvantage in any civil litigation, and one Jada's legal team appears ready to exploit. Their response to his deposition request was blunt: follow the rules or get nothing. The procedural demand that Salaam serve a formal non-party subpoena on Will Smith, rather than simply emailing a judge, reflects a defense strategy built on forcing a pro se plaintiff to stumble over process.
Whether Salaam can clear those procedural hurdles before the Aug. 19 hearing remains an open question. So does the question of what Will Smith would say under oath about a birthday party confrontation allegedly involving his wife, his longtime friend, and a demand for silence backed by threats.
When powerful people demand NDAs and silence, it is worth asking what they are so eager to keep quiet.
