Ice Cube‘s ‘Friday’ have been staples in the Black community since its debut in 1995. With ‘Next Friday’ releasing in 2000, fans noticed that the cast was missing an unforgettable character from the previous movie. Smokey, played by Chris Tucker, Craig’s best friend was mentioned in the sequels, but was missing in action due to being “in rehab”. His absence left fans wondering why the “puff, puff, give” character didn’t return.
On Twitter, the speculations were that Chris Tucker didn’t return due to money. Ice Cube responded in a tweet to a fan, “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”.
According to a recent interview with All Urban Central, Chris Tucker commented on why he didn’t return. “Back then, I gotta tell you, one of the reasons why I didn’t do the second one was because of the weed,” he explained. “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.'”
Although Smokey’s character was missed, Chris Tucker moved on to star in movies like ‘Money Talks’ and ‘The Fifth Element’.
The ‘Friday’ movies, although without his character, are still classics with the most memorable quotes in our households.
