Ice Cube Quits Film Over Vaccine

Production co-starring Jack Black was to shoot in Hawaii this winter
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 29, 2021 5:00 PM CDT
Ice Cube Makes Choice on Vaccination for Film Role
Ice Cube, shown performing in Louisville in 2019, is being replaced in a film project.   (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP)

Ice Cube is leaving a film project, and a $9 million salary, rather than be vaccinated for the coronavirus. He had signed on in June to partner and co-star with Jack Black on Oh Hell No, a comedy that was to film in Hawaii over the winter, per the Hollywood Reporter. Producers of the Sony film had asked that the cast receive the vaccine. No one involved in the project, including the studio, would comment on the withdrawal. Shooting is being postponed.

The star has promoted wearing face masks during the pandemic, even joining other donors in giving 2,000 of them to a college in Oklahoma in August. He and a manufacturing partner unveiled "Check Yo Self Before You Wreck Yo Self" T-shirts in April 2020, saying the proceeds would go to health care workers. Ice Cube pulled out of another film that was shut down after one day of shooting in March 2020, per the Reporter, but it's not clear why. There's no vaccine mandate covering Hollywood productions, per the Reporter.

But under an agreement announced this summer between the guilds and studios, producers may decide to "implement mandatory vaccination policies for casts and crew" where cast and crew members are working in the same space. Outbreaks have stopped productions. George Clooney is among those critical of the chaotic situation, which he blamed on people refusing to get vaccinated. "Every generation in our country for more than a lifetime has been asked to sacrifice something for the safety of their fellow man—get shot, fight Nazis," the star said. "All that anyone’s being asked here is to get a shot in the arm and put on a mask. Grow up." (More Ice Cube stories.)

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