Chris Tucker’s Smokey character nearly lost his life over some weed in the cult classic “Friday,” and it appears the actor learned his lesson in real life too.
Tucker didn’t appear in “Next Friday” or “Friday After Next,” the often-panned sequels to the 1995 film, which were released in 1998 and 2002, respectively. Wednesday morning, Ice Cube hopped onto Twitter to shed light on why Tucker’s role as Smokey was a one-time thing.
“We were ready to pay Chris Tucker $10-12m to do Next Friday but he turned us down for religious reasons,” Cube tweeted in response to a fan who thought the dispute was because of money. “He didn’t want to cuss or smoke weed on camera anymore.”
The conversation sprang up after actor Faizon Love, who played Big Worm in “Friday,” recently told news site Comedy Hype he was paid only $2,500 for his part in the movie.
After the internet accused him of underpaying his actors, Cube said that actors were paid scale for each day of work. Love says he had no issue and was happy to be a part of the movie.
“What I got paid is a moot point, it was the price of admission to a game,” Love wrote on Instagram Wednesday. “I have zero regrets. Actually, I want to take this time to thank Cube, DJ Pooh and Felix Gary Grey for letting me be a part of such an iconic picture. I truly have nothing but love For these brothers.”
In a November interview with All Urban Central, Tucker confirmed that his desire to stay off weed on camera played a role in his absence from the “Next Friday” and “Friday After Next” sequels.
“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. “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.’”
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