Chris Tucker revealed in a new interview he made just $10,000 for his role in Friday.
“It’s one of those things — it was just a small movie. We filmed it in 20 days. I got about $10,000 for it or whatever, I didn’t care. I wanted the opportunity,” the Rush Hour star said on former NFL player Shannon Sharpe’s “Club Shay Shay” podcast on Wednesday.
Friday was released in 1995. The film from director F. Gary Gray centered on unemployed slackers Craig and Smokey on a drama-filled Friday in the hood. Ice Cube also starred in the comedy, which he co-wrote with DJ Pooh.
Related Story: Ice Cube Gives Update on New ‘Friday’ Movie And Smokey’s Fate
Because of the movie’s low budget, Tucker said most scenes were shot on one street, and he had to nail his lines in just two takes.
“We could only take two takes, that means I could only do my lines twice. If I mess up one time, you get one more time and ‘that’s it, we’re going to cut your part,’” he explained.
He noted that having such a small crew and cast allowed him to just focus on his performance without any distractions.
“That movie was just a camera and me and Cube on the porch. Magic came out of it, thank God,” Tucker said.
Tucker’s popularity soared after the film’s release… and he was later paid a reported $20 million for Rush Hour 2.
As for Friday, it spawned a franchise including Next Friday in 2000 and Friday After Next in 2002.
A potential fourth installment titled Last Friday is currently in the works, although Tucker said in the interview he’s not interested in taking part in another Friday film.
Ice Cube recently said the film was delayed after the 2019 death of John Witherspoon, who played Mr. Jones a.k.a. Pops in the franchise.
Tommy “Tiny” Lister, who played the menacing “Deebo” in the Friday franchise, died last month due to COVID-19 complications.
New Line, a division of Warner Bros. Discovery, owns the rights to distribute the films. Richard Brener, president and chief commercial officer of New Line, has said the studio is on board with bringing the franchise back.
“We are making another Friday. We just closed a deal with Ice Cube to write and star,” Brener told The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s going to be called Last Friday.”
Cube has said he’s written two scripts for the final installment. Although he admitted in an interview with the “Drink Champs” podcast that the studio wasn’t quite sold on either version and sent him back to his desk.
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