The year was 1968 when Richard Pryor’s career had just started and that was the same year his career almost ended. He did the unthinkable to one of his co-stars and it had gotten him shunned in Hollywood for years. That was until his opportunity to appear in the 1973 film, The Mack came along.

The Mack is now a classic, but the ride to get it made was a long, rocky one according to what the star of the film, Max Julien, and the producer and director of The Mack said. The beloved Richard Pryor was at the center of the conflict and what he did prior to get him shunned in the industry was in true, wild Richard Pryor form, so we weren’t necessarily shocked when we heard about this, but it was still entertaining to hear nonetheless.

Here is why Richard almost didn’t even make it into the cast of The Mack and almost lost his career, until his good friend, Max, stepped in and pushed for him to be in The Mack, after which, Pryor’s career began to get back on track:

Word on the old school curb is that Richard Pryor URINATED on his Caucasian co-actress, Shelley Winters’ head, during filming of their 1968 film, Wild In The Streets. That was Pryor’s first movie, but as you can imagine, many in Hollywood refused to work with him after his peeing stunt.

According to Max Julien, The Mack producer, Harvey Bernhard, absolutely did not want to cast Pryor in the film because of Pryor’s untamed behavior and that infamous urinating incident.

Pryor had become somewhat of an outcast in Hollywood after that incident, because keep in mind that not only was that a disrespectful thing to do to another human being, but here was Pryor- an African American man, peeing on a Caucasian woman’s head during the civil rights era! He’s lucky all he got was outcast during that time…y’all know what I’m talking about.

The Mack’s director, Michael Campus, also hated the thought of working with Richard Pryor because of his reputation and he actually described his time on the set with Pryor as “difficult.” Campus said that on many occasions while filming, Pryor showed up to the set high as a kite, and sometimes he was a no-show altogether. Campus also admitted that he was shocked at how well Pryor performed in the film, because on camera Pryor came to life like a true professional and you couldn’t even tell that he was high during taping, once the finished product was completed.

The reason why The Mack save Pryor’s career is because it was a huge box-office hit and that is what prompted other Hollywood big wigs to want to be in the Pryor business again. He was then able to pull his career and part of his reputation out of that declining spiral.

We don’t know if Pryor and Shelley Winters ever made up though.
Yeah ILOSM family, this is just yet another colorful moment in the ever-so-colorful legacy of the late great Richard Pryor. We still love the man’s work, but even he himself has admitted, and even written a book about just how wild his past endeavors in his professional and personal lives really were.

Here are a few other fun facts that we found interesting about The Mack movie:

– According to Max Julien on the DVD commentary, Richard Pryor and producer Harvey Bernhard had a heated argument during filming. Later that night, Pryor was going to Bernhard’s hotel room to attack him with a sock filled with ball bearings until Julien calmed Pryor down.

– The infamous Player’s Ball scene was largely Richard Pryor’s idea. Other parts of the story Pryor took directly from people who he knew living this lifestyle. These included putting a man in the trunk of a car with rats and forcing a drug pusher to stab himself at gun point.

– The final draft of the script was written by Max Julien, Richard Pryor, and Michael Campus.

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