Ice Cube is clarifying some things about ‘Friday After Next’ following Katt Williams’ allegations made during his recent interview on Club Shay Shay.
via Complex:
On Friday, the West Coast rap legend shared a video of himself addressing Williams’ statements regarding the last film in the Friday trilogy. Cube made it clear that he has a lot of love for Williams but had to say something since what he described didn’t actually happen.
One of the most eye-popping claims the comedian made was that Friday After Next was supposed to include a rape scene. In the film’s original script, Williams’ character “Money Mike” is cornered in a bathroom by Terry Crews’ character “Damon” and gets sexually assaulted. Williams stated during his Club Shay Shay interview that he wanted the scene to be cut from the film as rape isn’t something to joke about.
“I would never shoot a rape scene in a movie especially like Friday where you actually see this happening on camera—that ain’t my style,” Cube said. “So the only reason that kind of stuff was in the movie is because you have three villains in Friday After Next. You have Santa Claus stealing presents, you have Damon just got out of prison sweating Craig and D for the rent money, and then you have Money Mike, you know, a pimp that treats his woman like a property. So Craig is always fighting the villains in the movie from The Joker Brothers to Debo.”
He continued, “So we already had Craig fighting Santa Claus, and the only real way to get rid of the other two villains was to have them go against each other. The plier joke was always in the script—it was never—we would never ever show that. That’s not my style, if you look at any of my movies. So you know that was never a discussion.”
Cube also addressed the claims Williams made about his fellow comedian brethren Rickey Smiley, who also starred in the movie, saying he had the role of Money Mike before Williams. According to Cube, Smiley auditioned for the role of Money Mike but fit better as Santa Claus. Williams showed up to the audition and was the perfect representation of the pimp.
“Ricky did give Money Mike a shot, but when we saw him, and you know, we kind of saw how he moved and how he was, you know, auditioning, we decided that he would be a better Santa Claus, which was to me the perfect casting. When we saw Katt, when I saw him, I just knew that he was perfect for Money Mike,” said Cube.
Cube also addressed Williams claiming he wrote the character of Money Mike, saying, “Katt said he wrote his role which I mean the role was written but he enhanced it. This is why Katt was so dope in the movie. Money Mike had a small role you know, about as big as the Santa Claus role, but when we start filming he was giving us such magic that we kept expanding his role and giving him more to do because he was on point.”
Cube also stated that Williams wrote most of his parts because of his elite skill in writing jokes as a comedian. According to the rapper, Williams was ready to “steal the show” each day of shooting.
“At that point in everybody’s career, you know, we would listen to a certain extent, but we wasn’t going to change the movie for any actor,” Ice Cube further explained. “We do what we feel and if it was a rape scene it would have been in the movie. It was no reason not to shoot it but that’s not my style. I don’t even like that kind of shit in movies on camera. That was to me a little discrepancy there.”
Watch Ice Cube speak on it below.
My comments on the @KattWilliams @ShannonSharpe interview. pic.twitter.com/HFsJGxusot
— Ice Cube (@icecube) January 5, 2024
