Comedian Faizon Love said he was paid just $2,500 in 1995 for his initial starring role as Big Worm in Ice Cube's "Friday," and was offered just $5,000 for "Next Friday" five years later.
©New Line Cinema/Courtesy Evere
Ice Cube is getting fired up over more rumors from the cast of his 1995 stoner comedy “Friday.”
This time it’s actor Faizon Love, who came in hot during a recent talk on Comedy Hype’s YouTube series, per Atlanta Black Star.
The comedian, 53, revealed that the “Check Yo Self” rapper and “Friday” creator offered a measly payout for his role as Big Worm — just $2,500.
The claim inspired keyboard critics to lash out at the 55-year-old crossover artist, born O’Shea Jackson, for “robbing his own people.”
But he’s not having any of it.
“I didn’t rob no f- -kin body. The 1995 Friday movie cost $2.3m to make. Shot it in 20 days. Fazion worked 1 day, maybe 2. All the actors got paid scale to do the movie. They could’ve simple said “No” but they didn’t. So miss me with that s – – t,” the filmmaker tweeted on Wednesday.
It wasn’t the “Elf” actor who accused Ice Cube of “robbing” him, per se. Said Love, “See, it wasn’t really about the money then.”
But when the script for “Next Friday” surfaced five years later, Love suggested their offer was no longer commensurate with his experience. “They wanted to give me double-scale. The scale was $2,500, right. So that was $5,000,” he explained. Instead, he went on to make the 2000 sports comedy “The Replacements” for $100,000.
Still, Ice Cube assured that the production was good for it — simultaneously putting to rest prior negative buzz about why co-star Chris Tucker had turned down his starring role as Smokey in the sequel. He added, “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.”
While it’s been reported that Tucker made $10,000 on the first film, just last month the “Rush Hour” actor aired out rumors over his departure from the cult classic franchise, which went on to make two sequels in 2000 and 2002. During an appearance on movie podcast “Flix Talk,” the 55-year-old comedian confessed why he refused the blockbuster paycheck. “I don’t want to represent everyone smoking weed,” he said of the iconic role. “I don’t want to keep doing that character.”
Love maintained there’s no beef throughout the interview, going so far as to suggest a fourth sequel, what one could only assume would be titled, “The Friday After the Friday After Next.”
He said, “If Cube said, ‘Faizon, there’s no money. I need you to do this.’ I would have to do it on GP [general principle] because it was that character that brought me into the game heavy.”
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