Friday After Next Had A Troubling Scene Katt Williams Fought To Remove
During the spring of 2023, comedian and actor Rickey Smiley appeared on Pro Football Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe's show "Club Shay Shay" to talk about his career, and shocked comedy film fans everywhere when he claimed that he was originally cast as the pimp Money Mike in the final film of the "Friday" trilogy, "Friday After Next." The film was his feature acting debut, but Smiley would eventually play the role of the robber Santa Claus with Katt Williams portraying Money Mike. Williams had been an established comic since the 1990s, but "Friday After Next" was his breakthrough acting role that helped put him on the map before "Wild 'n Out" made him a household name.
A wholly original comedic voice with an untouchable ability to bring honesty to even the most flamboyant characters, when Katt Williams is cast in a role ... it feels like it was written for him. Simply put, no one else on planet Earth could play Money Mike, so hearing Smiley's claims elicited a bit of an eyebrow raise.
Well, on January 3, 2024, Williams made a guest spot on "Club Shay Shay" and rejected Smiley's claims. He first brought up the fact that he was one of hundreds to audition for the role, which doesn't align with Smiley's claim that he was given the role and even shot footage as the character. However, when listening to Smiley talk about the footage he shot, the scenes are for Santa Claus, not Money Mike. Williams also explained the original script contained a scene Williams fought (and won) to have removed. This means if Smiley was telling the truth about being cast in the role before Williams, he would have approved of the highly inappropriate scene that made light of sexual assault.
Sexual assault is never funny
Katt Williams has always been a straight shooter and has nothing to gain by lying. As he said during his interview, "The truth of the matter is the Money Mike in the original script got raped in the bathroom and that's what Ricky Smiley was okay with." Williams said that he knew he was taking a big risk by saying something to the filmmakers since this was his first feature film, but he approached those in charge of making the big decisions and implored them to course correct. As he said:
"Respectfully, humbly, guys. If we talking about anything else — I have no credibility and I have no pull — but we're talking about comedy, right? Where I have all the credibility and all the pull. The problem with 'Friday After Next' is 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. 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 as it would be with him getting raped."
So not only is Katt Williams the best and baddest comedian to ever pull off a silk press, but he's also someone willing to call out rape culture in the face of potential career consequences. The "Friday" trilogy is now considered classic, with "Friday After Next" becoming an annual holiday watch for many. Katt Williams' performance as Money Mike is a big part of that, and knowing he made it better by getting an unnecessarily harmful scene removed from the script makes it even sweeter. Here's hoping we finally get "Last Friday" after all these years.