Ice Cube made the move to the big screen with the hit movie Boyz n the Hood in 1991, and in 1995 we got Friday. Friday brought in $27.4 million at the box office and considering it had a budget of $3.4 million, this was a big box office success. The movie spawned three films, with a fourth in the works, but one key element was missing from the follow-up movies: co-star Chris Tucker.
Chris Tucker, or “Smokey,” was a massive part of the first movie and added so much to the comedy. When he was not in the sequel except for a brief mention, fans were confused, angry and frankly upset. Recently, Ice Cube opened up why Chris Tucker did not reprise his role. Cube tweeted a statement that “We were ready to pay Chris Tucker $10-12 million to do Next Friday but he turned us down for religious reasons,” the songwriter explained. “He didn’t want to cuss or smoke weed on camera anymore.”
Tucker, known for appearing in Money Talks and in the Rush Hour series has spoken about his Christian faith before. In 2014, he told The Georgia Straight that he chooses to keep his language clean during comedy performances for this reason. Ice Cube’s words about Tucker come after actor Faizon Love (who played Big Worm in Friday) is believed to have been paid less than he was due for his part in the film. He was reportedly paid a $2,500 salary for his role in the movie and has since spoken out against it. The issue touched a nerve with Ice Cube as he addressed the backlash on social media, where he was described as ‘short-changing’ the cast and “robbing his own people,” Ice Cube replied with a simple “I didn’t rob no f*****g body.”
Last month in an interview with AUC (All Urban Central), Tucker had this to say:
“Back then, I gotta tell you, one of the reasons why I didn’t do the second one was because of the weed,” Tucker said in “Because I said, man, that movie became a phenomenon. I don’t want everybody smoking weed — and I never really told people this because I kind of forgot about it, but it was one of the reasons why I didn’t do it. Because I said, ‘I don’t wanna represent everybody smoking weed.’” “And that’s one of the reasons why I said ’nah.’ I didn’t wanna keep doing that character. It probably was good for me because it kept me moving to the next phase and next movies,” Tucker added.
You can listen to the rest of the interview here:
As far as returning and the idea of coming back for a long-rumored fourth Friday movie, Tucker said he would “definitely consider it.”
“I always said — because I know my fans love the movies so much [and] they always bring it up — I said, well, if they come to me with a great script and a great idea, I’d definitely consider it,” he said. “But it’s been so long ago and that character became such a great character. I don’t wanna mess it up.”
Now, we will have to wait and see if and when the fourth movie ever sees the light of day and if it will be Chris Tucker or Mike Epps (who replaced Tucker in the sequels) standing next to Ice Cube.
