*Ice Cube claims religion is the reason why his “Friday” costar Chris Tucker turned down $12 million to reprise his role in the sequel.
The actor and hip-hop icon claims the comedian refused to appear in the two sequels: 2000’s “Next Friday” and 2002’s “Friday After Next” because of “religious reasons.”
“We were ready to pay Chris Tucker $10-12m to do Next Friday but he turned us down for religious reasons. He didn’t want to cuss or smoke weed on camera anymore,” Ice Cube tweeted Wednesday when someone asked whether Tucker “quit over money” reasons.
READ MORE: Chris Tucker Explains Why He Never Returned to ‘Friday’ Franchis
We were ready to pay Chris Tucker $10-12m to do Next Friday but he turned us down for religious reasons. He didn’t want to cuss or smoke weed on camera anymore. https://t.co/1pfo1FHWzp
— Ice Cube (@icecube) December 29, 2021
Tucker recently spoke out about why he has no interest in reprising the role of Smokey for the “Friday” movie franchise.
“It probably was good for me because it kept me moving to the next phase and next movies,” Tucker said in an interview with All Urban Central. “Back then, I gotta tell you, one of the reasons why I didn’t do the second one was because of the weed,” Tucker added.
“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,’ ” the “Rush Hour” star continued. “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 said another reason for his decision not to appear in another “Friday” movie is because “I never thought about doing sequels. I always wanted to do a good job, and keep moving to the next movie.”
“Friday” star and co-writer Ice Cube created two sequels, “Next Friday” in 2000 and “Friday After Next “in 2002. Tucker said he would “definitely consider” returning for a possible fourth installment.
“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. But it’s been so long ago and that character became such a great character. I don’t wanna mess it up.”
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