Chris Tucker Only Got Paid 10K For ‘Friday’ … Says No To Rumored Reboot

Chris Tucker is looking back on his 20 plus years in the business starting with his breakout role in the 1995 film Friday.

He reminisced with Shanon Sharp for his “Club Shay Shay” podcast and even shocked Sharp when he revealed he only got paid $10,000 for his role as Smokey.

“We filmed it in 20 days. I got about $10,000 for it or whatever; I didn’t care. I wanted the opportunity.”

While Sharpe was shocked that Tucker earned so little for the role, Tucker explained that the film’s whole budget was only $2 to $3 million.

“It was either $2 million or $3 million to do,” he said. “I know we had 20 days [to film it] because they kept reminding me every day.”

To everyone’s surprise the film was a hit grossing over $25 million world wide and made Tucker a huge star … so much so he turned down the sequels. According to Tucker he was ready to do action films and decided to do Money Talks instead of the Friday sequel.

A few years later he was making a whopping $20 million a film in the Rush Hour franchise, so we think he made the right decision.

Now with talks of reviving the hood classic after two success sequels — “Next Friday” and “Friday After Next — Tucker still isn’t interested in returning to the role that made him famous.

“I probably won’t [do the movie] because I never want to shortchange my audience and fans, he said. “I know they want it because that’s what they know and love … but I don’t want to come back in something that I probably can’t do what they want me to do because I’ve grown. But not only grown, I’m different.”