The Faith-Based Reason Chris Tucker Refused a Major Payday
By Movieguide® Contributor
Chris Tucker gained popularity after starring in the 1995 movie FRIDAY, but his co-star Ice Cube has just revealed why audiences never saw Tucker in any sequels.
After being asked on Twitter if Tucker quit over salary disputes, Ice Cube responded, “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.”
Tucker also spoke about his decision to turn down the FRIDAY sequel.
In an interview with All Urban Central, the actor said, “Back then, I gotta tell you, one of the reasons why I didn’t do the second one was because of the weed. 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,’” he 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 is very open about his faith. He was raised Pentecostal and grew up attending church, but abandoned his faith after finding fame in the movie industry. He became a born-again Christian after moving back to Atlanta in the 1990s.
“Being a Christian helps me in comedy,” the actor told Canadian newspaper Straight. “I have to talk about other stuff. Normally, most comics talk about stuff that’s easy — maybe cussing or saying something raunchy. I have to dig deeper to find something that’s still funny and not raunchy. It’s harder. I like the challenge.”
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