Ice Cube is reportedly walking away from a new movie — and nearly $10 million — after refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
The rapper and actor has exited the Sony comedy Oh Hell No, which he was set to star in opposite Jack Black, "after declining a request from producers to get vaccinated," The Hollywood Reporter revealed Friday. He was announced as part of the project in June. By dropping out of the movie, which is pushing back the start of its production, the Reporter says Ice Cube will be walking away from a $9 million payday.
Ice Cube didn't comment on the report, and he has not publicly said that he's declining to get a COVID-19 vaccine. In August, he donated 2,000 face masks to students at Bacone College in Oklahoma. The Reporter notes this is Ice Cube's second time leaving a project in the past few months after previously he dropped out of the boxing movie Flint Strong, though it wasn't clear whether this also had to do with vaccine requirements.
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This news comes after the Reporter in October described how Hollywood is "more divided" than one might think over COVID-19 vaccination, detailing instances in which productions reportedly had to shut down after an unvaccinated actor tested positive for the coronavirus. That report also said that Black Panther star Letitia Wright allegedly espoused anti-vaccine views on the set of the Marvel sequel. She later called the report "completely untrue."
George Clooney told the Reporter as part of that piece it's "crazy" and "stupid" that some actors won't get vaccinated, while The Mandalorian star Giancarlo Esposito said, "If you don't want to vaccinate, go to a small island and sequester yourself. [Otherwise] you're saying 'F--- you' to all you other human beings.'"
