Imagine a pop culture landscape where Dana Carvey and Jon Lovitz, the two “Saturday Night Live” regulars eyed to star in what would become “Bad Boys,” were actually hired instead of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence.

Weird, right? Smith would agree. “It’s just a little less seasoning in the world if there’d been no ‘Bad Boys,’ ” he says.

The original “Bad Boys” in 1995 made bonafide Hollywood movie stars out of sitcom actors Smith (he of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”) and Lawrence (the main man of “Martin”). Smith’s loose-cannon bachelor Mike Lowrey and Lawrence’s headstrong family man Marcus Burnett were Miami cops who traded insults, threw themselves into firefights guns ablazing and popped on screen right off the bat, and the fourth film “Bad Boys: Ride or Die” (in theaters Friday) builds on that relationship.

This sometimes means doling out tough love, like when Marcus smacks Mike across the face – multiple times – to get his pal’s mind right. “I was like, ‘Hey, man, listen, we ain’t trying to do this all day,’ ” Smith, 55, quips about filming that scene. “If you’re going to do it, just do it.”

“But that’s the ride-or-die part of it,” Lawrence, 59, adds in a more serious tone. “What you would do for your partner.”

Given that the new “Bad Boys” is Smith’s first major theatrical release since he slapped Chris Rock two years ago at the Oscars, the scene is a somewhat meta moment inside “Ride or Die.” The movie finds Marcus rethinking his life perspective after a near-death experience, Mike worrying that his work puts loved ones in harm’s way, and both detectives going on the run from the law after digging up police corruption.

Calling USA TODAY from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he and Lawrence are promoting “Bad Boys,” Smith feels like Mike and Marcus as characters “represent pieces of what I’m experiencing and how I’m evolving as a human,” he says.

“Mike Lowrey kind of represents the part of me that’s resisting the future, and Martin’s character is really the part of me that’s trying to stay open to the groundlessness of what it really means to be in this world. So I’m evolving as Mike and Marcus.”

Longtime “Bad Boys” producer Jerry Bruckheimer says Smith and Lawrence “really understand what the audience wants” and have grown as storytellers and performers over three decades. He was always confident they were the right two guys. “Martin’s the funniest man alive and Will becomes his straight man,” Bruckheimer says. “Once or twice in our life, we made a good decision.”

Because Lawrence signed on first for the original movie, “I had to choose a partner and I couldn’t get Eddie Murphy,” he jokes, sparking one of Smith’s signature laughs. Lawrence’s sister was a big “Fresh Prince” fan and thought Smith would be good, and he invited Smith out to dinner.

“We had never really met, never really hung out,” Smith recalls. “That was the first time we really sat down and talked. I was already jealous of him: ‘Fresh Prince’ was on NBC, so it was big, but ‘Martin’ was the people’s champ! I felt like Joe Frazier with Ali.”

Five minutes into the dinner, “I knew that was my guy and we’ve been rolling ever since,” Lawrence says. Adds Smith: “When you mix that kind of natural chemistry with a little bit of work ethic and a little bit of love and respect for each other, it’s a magical cocktail.”

Making “Ride or Die” put both actors in a nostalgic mood. They’d watch scenes from the previous movies during filming to get back in the “Bad Boys” mindset, and revisiting the ’95 film led to an epiphany for Smith.

“I was hell-bent on ‘I’m gonna be the biggest movie star in the world!’ And my mind was so completely future-focused. So many goals and so much drive,” Smith says. “I remember standing with Martin a few months ago looking at ‘Bad Boys 1,’ and I was like, ‘Oh, no, that kid didn’t realize he was in the middle of his dreams.’

“I didn’t know I was experiencing everything that I ever dreamed about. I had arrived, I was there, it was a studio movie with Martin Lawrence and (producers) Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer that was going to go on to be an absolute cult classic. What more was I looking for?

“That was I think the major takeaway and awakening that happened for me on this movie. Life is not tomorrow. Life is not after you fix something or after you get married or after you make X amount of money. It’s right now.”

Lawrence concurs: “It was just about being in the moment and enjoying the blessing.”