Ice Cube Puts Story Before Cameos For Last Friday

Ice Cube isn’t handing out “Last Friday” appearances just because somebody wants another turn on the block. He’s making the story the deciding factor as familiar faces look for a place in the long-awaited fourth movie.

During a Club Shay Shay conversation released November 11, Cube explained that returning characters need a reason to be there. Mike Epps described getting calls from people interested in coming back, including someone who had previously worked as an extra.

“We can’t just be throwing people in the movie just because people want to see them,” Cube told Shannon Sharpe.

He said the choices have to work with the plot, then pointed to the franchise’s move away from its original neighborhood.

Cube recalled leaving characters behind when the action shifted to Rancho Cucamonga. That change brought a different setting and different people, rather than putting the entire original cast into another location.

He explained that the focus was on how the characters fit together, not simply bringing everyone back. “It just got to make sense,” Cube told Shannon Sharpe.

The conversation arrives after Lawrence Lamont joined Last Friday as director, bringing experience with another neighborhood comedy. Lamont directed Keke Palmer and SZA in “One Of Them Days,” about two friends scrambling to save their home after their rent money disappears.

He’s also worked with rappers on the music-video side, including Big Sean and J. Cole. His television credits include “Rap Sh!t,” giving him another connection to stories built around Hip-Hop and the people trying to make a living around it.

The “Friday” series began in 1995 with Cube and Chris Tucker, with F. Gary Gray directing the original. Epps later joined as Day-Day, and the series hasn’t added another movie since “Friday After Next” arrived in 2002. The first film introduced Tucker’s Smokey alongside Cube’s Craig, while John Witherspoon played Craig’s father and became another fixture of the series.

The new production has California tax-credit support, with New Line’s “Last Friday” included in the state’s October 7 awards. Cube serves as the movie’s star, writer and producer for its return to Southern California.

The Southern California production plans to employ more than 180 local cast and crew members.