As hard as it may be to believe, 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of the cult classic film, “Friday.”
Bearing an all-star cast of Ice Cube, Chris Tucker, Nia Long, Regina King, Tommy Lister Jr., John Witherspoon, Bernie Mac and more, the film debuted in 1995 and went on to make over $27 million at the box office and spawned two sequels, “Next Friday” and “Friday After Next.”
While the beloved film has cemented its place in the pantheon of influential Black cinema, contains many quotables, and is revered as one of the best Black films of the 90s, there are still some facts about how the movie came to be that many don’t know.
So, in the spirit of Black History Month and in celebration of the upcoming 30th anniversary on April 26, here’s are five little known facts about our fave film.
It Was Originally Written in 1994
In an interview with N.O.R.E. on his “Drink Champs” podcast in 2020, Cube shared that five years after he left the infamous rap group NWA, he and DJ Pooh began penning the script for what would be come the cult classic film just one year prior to its release. The film would later come out just four years after he dropped his second studio album “Death Certificate,” which later debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 charts and is certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
The Idea for “Friday” was Inspired by Robert Townsend’s “Hollywood Shuffle” and “In Living Color”
While the storyline and plot of the film was taken from the lived experiences of Cube and his co-writer DJ Pooh, Cube also explained in his interview on “Drink Champs” that the idea to even make a movie was inspired by two Black hollywood legends: Robert Townsend and Keenon Ivory Wayans.
“We was fans of Hollywood Shuffle which is a Robert Townsend comedy about Black people’s experience going through in Hollywood. So we heard that he had done that movie off credit cards basically, he shot that movie getting credit cards and charging everything,” Cube explained before later saying that led them to wanting to do the same thing.
They also said they were “fans” of Wayans popular comedy improve show, “In Living Color” and that encouraged them even more to make their own stuff.
‘Friday’ Went Through 2 Iterations Before Final Script
Explaining how he went out and bought a computer after a meeting with late director John Singelton, Cube told N.O.R.E. that it took two attempts at a script before he finally hit gold and got the dialogue that we have today.
“I didn’t know what I was doing, I just started. The first two scripts I wrote was whack, garbage. But the third one was ‘Friday.’ And seeing that one get made, I kind of knew what I was doing right and doing wrong and kept going from there,” he said.
It Was Shot in Less Than a Month and Only Cost $2.5 Million to Make
Speaking in a separate interview with DJ Khaled back in 2021, Cube revealed that they shot the film in a just under three weeks and that it only cost $2.5 million to make. While he initially thought he was going to have to take the Townsend approach and just charge all the equipment and necessary costs on credit cards, thankfully New Line Cinema stepped in to foot the bill once they got wind of the script.
Chris Tucker Almost Wasn’t “Smokey” in the Film
While Tucker’s role is arguably the most memorable of the entire film, he almost didn’t get the gig after he bombed his first audition. This story was revealed in an interview for Complex back in 2015 by director F. Gary Gray, casting director Kim Hardin and costars Faizon Love and Angela Means. They also revealed that Tommy Davidson and Chris Rock were also notable contenders for the role.
“I brought Chris in and the first time he auditioned for me, he was horrible. It was a combination of things: He had just come off the road from doing a couple of stand-up gigs, hadn’t read the script, and at the time he didn’t know that comedians can improv, put their own thing on whatever the dialogue is,” Hardin explained. “I knew Chris could do better. When a person isn’t prepared, they can’t do their best job. I allowed him to prepare and come back.”