Oh Hell No: Ice Cube Exits Sony Comedy After Refusing COVID-19 Vaccine
Rapper, entrepreneur, and filmmaker Ice Cube is walking away from a new movie — and nearly $10 million — after refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Cube, whose real name is O’Shea Jackson, was, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter, slated to star opposite Jack Black in the Sony comedy Oh Hell No. Upon receiving a request from producers to get vaccinated, Cube declined the request and subsequently dropped out of the movie.
By doing so, The Hollywood Reporter says that the Westside Connect Gang head honcho will be walking away from $9 million as a payday.
Cube hasn’t gone on record in the report, and also hasn’t publicly said that he’s declining to get a COVID-19 vaccine. In August, Cube donated 2,000 face masks to students at Bacone College in Oklahoma. But this does mark the second time the future Hip-Hop Hall of Famer has left a project, as most recently he left the boxing movie, Flint Strong, which is about multiple-time world champion Claressa Shields.
It remains unclear whether that had to do with vaccine requirements.
The news follows word about how Hollywood is “more divided” than one might think over getting vaccinated and COVID-19 protocols on set, detailing instances in which productions reportedly had to shut down after an unvaccinated actor tested positive for the deadly virus.
In that same report, it also said that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever star Letitia Wright allegedly espoused anti-vaccine views on the set of the Marvel sequel.
She later called the report “completely untrue”.
This story is still developing.