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Katt Williams generated a lot of headlines after taking shots at a number of celebrities — from Cedric the Entertainer and Kevin Hart to Steve Harvey — while on Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay podcast. Among the many claims also included the comedian insisting he pushed for the removal of a rape scene in Friday After Next. And now Ice Cube is weighing in.
The “Bow Down” rapper and star of the Marcus Raboy-directed comedy took to X (formerly Twitter) on Friday and posted a 9-minute video refuting Williams’ claim about the so-called rape scene. While on Club Shay Shay, Williams claimed that the original script called for his character, Money Mike, to film a rape scene after Terry Crews’ character, Damon, corners him in the bathroom. Williams insisted he pushed for the removal of the scene.
“The problem with Friday After Next is we’re trying to make a classic comedy,” Williams said on the podcast, “and this comedy involves a rape, and rape is never funny no matter who it happens to or what the circumstances are.”
The comedian insisted that he told filmmakers, “If you would allow me, allow us to do this movie without a Black man getting raped in it. I promise you it will be twice as funny.”
Williams went on to claim that he essentially risked his career by standing up to the powers that be to scrap the scene.
“Katt Williams had to take the risk in front of the studios and the cast and the powers that be, in his very first movie, and say, ‘Respectfully, humbly, guys, if we’re talking about anything else, I have no credibility and I have no pull, but we’re talking about comedy, where I have all the credibility and all the pull,'” he said.
Ice Cube, who also wrote the script, sought to clarify Williams’ comments.
“I would never shoot a rape scene in a movie, especially like Friday,” he said. “That ain’t my style. If you check out any of my movies, they’re not raunchy. We did a movie called The Players Club. The subject matter is a little raunchy but for the most part even that we left it to your imagination.”
He added, “The plier joke [in Friday After Next] was always in the script. We would never, ever show that. That’s not my style if you look at any of my movies. So, that was never a discussion.”
Ice Cube said discussions with actors about a script change can happen “to a certain extent, but we weren’t going to change the movie for any actor.”
“We do what we feel,” he continued, “and if it was a rape scene it woulda been in the movie. There was no reason not to shoot it. But that’s not my style. I don’t even like that kind of s**t in movies. And so, that was, to me, a little discrepancy there.”
Williams had also claimed that he wrote his character’s lines. Cube confirmed that that’s mostly an accurate statement.
“The role was written, but he enhanced it, which is why Katt was so dope in the movie,” Cube said. “Money Mike had a small role, about as big as the Santa Claus role, but when we started filming, he was giving so much magic that we kept expanding the role, and giving him more to do because he was on point.”
The “It Was a Good Day” rapper went on to praise Williams for always coming prepared and making magic.
Elsewhere in the podcast, Williams seemingly reignited a long-time feud between him and Hart, whom he accused of being an industry plant.
“In 15 years in Hollywood, no one in Hollywood has a memory of going to a sold-out Kevin Hart show, there being a line for him, ever getting a standing ovation at any comedy club,” Williams said. “He already had his deals when he got here…what do you think a plant is?”
Williams went on to claim that Hart scored roles he turned down.
“For a five-year period, every single movie that Kevin Hart did was a movie that had been on my desk that all I had said was just, ‘Can we take some of this Stepin Fetchit sh*t out and then I can do it? Like it don’t need to be overtly homosexual cuz I’m not homosexual, right? It doesn’t need that to be funny, right?’ And me saying that and them going, ‘Oh yeah, no problem,’ and then going to give it to this other guy and having him do it just like it was and acting like I’m a bad person because I keep standing on my standard,” Williams claimed. “Yeah, it’s interesting, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. Again, I’m on the winning side of these decisions.”
Hart has since responded to the claims as “sad.”
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