All About Laughs
Ice Cube went from hip-Hop star to A-list actor early in his career. This was thank in large part to a string of cult classic roles in films like Boyz In The Hood and Friday. In the time since he’s gone on to even bigger and more lucrative roles, its always been his initial foray into acting that has defined his career. During a recent interview with Big Boy, Cube reveals that had he accepted more roles at the time, that resume could have included Poetic Justice and Menace II Society.
Ice Cube originally rose to fame as a member of NWA. Their success in the early 90’s was thanks to a string of hit records and a ton of public outcry based on their image and direct stance against police. However, after their initial success, Ice Cube stepped away from the team and their label to make music alone, feeling as though he was not being treated fair financially by the Eazy-E and Dr. Dre cofounded label.
Cube’s biggest role is arguable that of Craig Jones in the Friday franchise. This film and its subsequent sequels helped cement Ice Cube as a real actor and gave him a credible franchise to his name. The original film came out in 1995, with Ice Cube and Chris Tucker leading the ensemble cast. The second installment, Next Friday, was released in 2000; and the third and so far final, Friday After Next, debuted just two years later. He recently opened up about Friday’s final installment and the battle he’s been having with Warner Bros to get the movie right ahead of its 25th anniversary. “We are pushing for it, we finished the script, we are getting notes from the studio and it’s going back and forth,” Ice Cube said. “Get into pre-production and start hiring. It would be nice for this to come out on the 25th anniversary.” However following the death of two of the films staple actors John Witherspoon and Thomas Duane “Tiny” Lister Jr., things seem to have fallen off.
Told y’all it’s coming… #Friday pic.twitter.com/p15BEBBnFn
— Ice Cube (@icecube) May 3, 2019
Cube also spoke about also excepting a role in Poetic Justice, but how he turned it down because he did not agree with some of the characters choices. Director John Singleton was not willing to make changes however and the role went to Tupac Shakur instead. “I only had one problem with it and he didn’t want to change it, so I didn’t want to do it. The problem was I didn’t think… me playing 2Pac, that I would kick my homeboy out the car for a girl I just met when we got to Oakland. I didn’t think that was cool…It made the character kind of a sucker to me.”
Ice Cube also revealed he turned down the “O-Dog” role in Menace II Society because he had just played the “Doughboy” character in Boyz n the Hood and didn’t want to be typecast.
