Chris Tucker Once Shared He Wouldn’t Do Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Jackie Brown’ Today
Quentin Tarantino and Chris Tucker once collaborated on the 1997 feature Jackie Brown. And although Jackie Brown remains one of the comedian’s most memorable roles, it’s one film Tucker would avoid doing again.
Chris Tucker once stopped making movies because the roles he was getting weren’t good enough
Tucker became very selective and cautious of the types of movies he did after becoming an A-list star. Once best known for his role in Friday, the comedian saw much success with his Rush Hour movies. But he didn’t want his career to peak with his and Jackie Chain’s comedy series. Instead, he planned to increase his film resume with other meaningful projects.
“When I got to Rush Hour, I felt like: O.K., I’ve proven myself as the pinnacle,” he once told the New York Times. “Now where’s all the bigger movies?”
But Tucker repeatedly found himself typecast as his Rush Hour character in would would’ve been potential movies. Ultimately, Tucker felt the characters he was offered to play weren’t “good enough.” Not getting the roles he wanted, the comedian decided to take a long break from Hollywood. He would return to the big screen in 2007 with the debut of Rush Hour 3. It was the film’s script that brought him back to acting.
“I think the timing is great, because this summer all these part three’s are doing great and I guess the timing is just great. It wasn’t planned. But what convinced me was the script, it took awhile to get it together because we never planned on doing a part two or three,” he once told Collider.
Why Chris Tucker wouldn’t do ‘Jackie Brown’ again
Aside from Friday and Rush Hour, one of the comedian’s most famous roles is as Beaumont Livingston in Tarantino’s Jackie Brown. The movie was rounded out by an ensemble cast that included Samuel L. Jackson, Pam Grier, and Robert De Niro. At the time, Tucker’s manager tried to warn the actor against doing the role because it seemed too small. But Tucker’s Rush Hour director Brett Ratner claimed that he helped convince Tucker to do the crime thriller.
But over the years, an older Tucker looked back at his role in Jackie Brown with a bit of regret. Because of Tarantino’s unique dialogue in the film, Tucker probably would’ve turned down Jackie Brown if offered the role nowadays.
“Back then I wasn’t even thinking that much about how words like that affect people,” Tucker said in a 2007 interview with Playboy (via Contact Music). “But I do now. I wouldn’t do it. I don’t know how old I was then, but I’m a different person now. Hopefully, we evolve as we get older. Hopefully, we better ourselves. No, I wouldn’t do that dialogue now.”
Chris Tucker was in brief talks to star in ‘Django Unchained’
Jackie Brown might not have been the only Tarantino film that Tucker would’ve been cast in if stars aligned differently. At one point, Tucker was in serious consideration for Tarantino’s 2012 feature Django Unchained. The comic found himself in the conversation to play the titular character along with a couple of other familiar actors.
“I met six different actors and had extensive meetings with all of them, and I went in-depth on all of their work,” Tarantino once told Playboy (via Entertainment Weekly). “Idris Elba, Chris Tucker, Terrence Howard, M.K. Williams, Tyrese. They all appreciated the material, and I was going to put them through the paces, make them go off against one another and kind of put up an obstacle course.”
But this all changed after Tarantino met with Jamie Foxx, who he felt was ideal for the role.
“He was the cowboy,” Tarantino said about Foxx. “Forget the fact that he has his own horse — and that is actually his horse in the movie. He’s from Texas; he understands. …He understood what it’s like to be thought of as an ‘other.'”
