After Katt Williams unleashed a firestorm of jabs at several comedians and other celebrities in his recent interview with Shannon Sharpe, everybody and their mommas have come out to speak their mind. This go ’round, even rap legend-turned-movie mogul, Ice Cube, is stating his piece.
As we previously reported, Katt Williams name-dropped everyone from Steve Harvey, to Kevin Hart, Cedric the Entertainer, to Rickey Smiley, and more. In terms of the latter, Rickey, Katt called him out for speaking ‘untruths’ about the “Money Mike” role that Katt played in the Friday After Next film.
Now, Ice Cube has spoken out to both confirm many the things Katt said in the interview about his role, while also ‘clarifying’ a couple other statements Katt made.
Ice Cube Clears Up A Few Things…And Confirms Others
Ice Cube started off by noting that Friday After Next was shot over 20 years ago, so he understands that “people have different perspectives” so many years later. He then made it clear that he thinks all of the comedians Katt went at in his interview, as well as Katt, are all “funny as hell,” stating that’s why he chose to work with them on his projects.
“Katt was 100 on a few things — on most of what he was saying — [but] a couple of the other thing… I just wanna clarify,” Cube said.
He continued:
“When we bring in [a] new comedian we do have them try out for different roles. So, Rickey did give [the “Money Mike” role] a shot. … but when we saw him and we kinda saw how he moved [when] auditioning we decided that he’d be better [as] “Santa Claus,” which to me was perfect casting.
Cube then explained how Katt got the “Money Mike” role and cleared up Katt’s claims about ‘writing’ all the lines’ for the role. “When I saw [Katt]…I just knew he was perfect for ‘Money Mike.’ … The role was written but he enhanced it. That’s why Katt was so dope in the movie.”
“Money Mike” had a small role, Cube said, stating that Katt’s role was originally the same size as Rickey’s role. However, Katt expanded his role with his comedic contributions to the lines:
“When we started filming [Katt] was giving it such magic that we kept expanding his role, giving him more to do because he was on point. … When we shoot the script …once we get what we need from the script, we let the comedians adlib, riff,play with the words, do their thing. Ya know, we give them a take, or two where they can go off or do what they feel. … Sometimes it makes the movie, sometimes it don’t. [But] When somebody gives you jewels you wanna try to make sure it makes the movie.”
“Katt wrote a lot of his parts …because he was coming off the dome, he was coming prepared everyday to steal the show. Ya know, that was his mission. … And it launched his career…and I’m proud of the movie. I’m proud of all the guys who’ve come through Cube Vision production and went on to do bigger and better things.”
As far as any ‘Friday’ actors who complained about the low wages they were paid for the role — the same folks that Katt Williams also slammed for the same reason, in defense of Ice Cube — Cube pretty much sided with Katt on that.
Ice Cube also went on to clarify the “Money Mike” vs. ‘ex-con’ (Terry Crews’ character) r@pe scene that Katt stated he’d requested be taken out of the script. Check out what else Cube had to say about this in the clips up top.
In You Missed It…
In 2002, Williams and Smiley were part of the cast of the third installment of Ice Cube’s “Friday” series, “Friday After Next.” Williams was cast as “Money Mike,” and Smiley was cast as “Santa Claus.” In a prior interview, Smiley had told Shannon Sharpe, on his “Club Shay Shay” podcast, that he had initially been assigned the role of “Money Mike.”
Shannon Sharpe; Katt Williams; Rickey Smiley
Katt then came back to shut that claim down with the quickness:
“This man told you he had Katt Williams’ role. He was going to be Money Mike, and Katt Williams was going to be the Santa Claus,” Katt said to Shannon Sharpe. “We auditioned in Los Angeles. I was audition No. 201. Two-hundred Black comedians auditioned for the role of Money Mike with me. You’re saying all 201 of us was auditioning, and you had already had the role and had already shot the role in four days?”
Rickey Smiley Responded
Rickey Smiley responded to Katt on Thursday morning during his “Rickey Smiley Morning Show,” pretty much saying that Katt needs to get his facts all the way together. Check out those clips below…
Rickey Smiley’s full clip below…
Katt Williams also claimed the original Friday After Next script involved a r@pe scene, and that he didn’t think the attack would be amusing, so he asked for it to be removed. He went on to comment that if they were able to do the movie without a Black man being raped in it, he promised that it would be twice as funny.
