Katt Williams had sexual assault scene cut from “Friday After Next”: 'Rape is never funny'
The comedian reveals he advocated against a rape scene involving his character Money Mike.
Katt Williams said he pushed back against a scene in 2002's Friday After Next that involved the sexual assault of his character, Money Mike.
In a conversation with Shannon Sharpe on his Club Shay Shay podcast that dropped Wednesday, the comedian, 52, said the original script from writer and star Ice Cube featured a scene in which his larger-than-life pimp is assaulted in a bathroom — but he persuaded the crew to cut the scene.
"We're trying to make a classic comedy, and this comedy involves a rape, and rape is never funny, no matter who it happens to or what the circumstances are," Williams said, sharing that he relayed the following message to the team: "If you would allow me to allow us to do this movie without a Black man getting raped in it, I promise you that it will be twice as funny."
Everett Collection
Katt Williams in 'Friday After Next'The comedian marveled at his ability 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, 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.'"
Reps for Ice Cube and New Line Cinema didn't immediately respond to EW's request for comment.
The third installment in the Friday stoner comedy franchise, the Christmas-time set Friday After Next follows pals Craig (Ice Cube) and Day-Day (Mike Epps) as they take jobs as security guards at a local mall after a Santa Claus breaks into their apartment and robs them. Ice Cube has long been trying to bring a fourth and final installment to the screen, but shared in 2022 that the script has been stuck "in development hell."
Watch Williams' conversation with Sharpe in full above.
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