Fans wanted a "Barbershop 2" and the cast was more than happy to oblige. The majority of the gang returns for this sequel, which features the same type of humor that made the first "Barbershop" so popular, while also focusing more on the community surrounding Calvin's barbershop
ICE CUBE ('Calvin'):
Did you have any thoughts on how the controversy should be handled this time?
No, not at all. We didn't think about that on the first one, so I felt like thinking about that on the second one would hurt the movie. I think our focus would be off. The first time around, we tried to just be true to what a barbershop is. The second time around, we tried to be true to what a barbershop is. We really didn't worry about controversy.
Were you hurt by the controversy?
No, I wasn't hurt. I was just confused. I was confused at the fact that why are some voices out there worried about a damn movie. There's a lot of problems that we have out there that can get you on “Nightline” faster than talking about “Barbershop.” So it was just funny to me that some of our leaders would take that much time, effort and energy to dismiss something that was loved by so many of our people. It was just strange.
And it was taken out of context.
Exactly. In that movie, if you really look, the hoopla was over the Rosa Parks statements and the Martin Luther King statements, but if you really look at the movie, it's really one person with that opinion and everybody else is trying to shut him down. Same with this movie, we were dealing with Luther Vandross. Everybody was trying to shut him down like before when he talked about people that you shouldn't talk about. If our movie were 15 minutes longer, he would've went on a rant about that. So that's the personality that's in the barbershop, and you can't dismiss it.
What did Queen Latifah bring to this sequel?
Oh, besides star power and energy? Just by us going into the beauty shop, just by showing that these worlds are kind of connected someway, somehow, and just by every time she comes on screen, all the energy and presence she brings. [She’s] perfect for her character, kind of a girl who [doesn’t] take no stuff. That's kind of her attitude. I'm so happy about her success because her, Will Smith…we're silencing the critics on whether we can do this or whether we should do this or whether we should just, you know, go back to our rap world. And we're showing that with a lot of hard work, you can do it.
Did anyone play any pranks?
No pranks. That's really not the kind of set I like. Working with George Clooney on "Three Kings," I saw a lot of pranks going on. I just didn't want us to give up that much energy on trying to get back, so I just never run that kind of set where it's a lot of pranks. [There's] a lot of laughter though. A lot of laughter and a lot of joking, but we stay off the practical jokes.
What's the funniest story from behind the scenes on the set?
The day Cedric fell in his little pool. I mean, besides what was happening on screen, that was probably the funniest thing that happened. It was during rehearsal so I just thought, "Damn, Cedric is going all out for this rehearsal." So that was pretty much the funniest thing that happened on the set.
How important was the issue of gentrification?
Well, I thought it was a perfect opportunity to expand. When you first start doing something, you do it for your immediate family. And then you realize that more people are counting on you, then you kind of have to expand your thought process on how you do things. Same with Calvin. First movie, he was just trying to do the right thing by his family, whether he was a get rich quick kind of guy or not. Then he realized this barbershop means a lot to the community and means a lot to [him], too. So now it was just, to me, only natural to see what happens outside of the barbershop to the community.
Gentrification is something that we all have faced somewhere somehow, and how do you deal with it? Out with the old, in with the new, tradition versus the future. These were some of the questions that I don't think have ever been raised within us. How do we deal with this situation? And I don't think we answered it in the movie, but we definitely raised the question of the business that's been there for 20 or 30 years. Be good to your customers, because when the big boys come down the street, you want those people to always still come back to you. So there's a lot of lessons to be learned in that whole gentrification angle that we took.
PAGE 2: Preparing Mentally, More "Friday" Movies, and Mainstream Appeal
ADDITIONAL “BARBERSHOP 2” CAST INTERVIEWS:
Kenan Thompson / Eve / Cedric the Entertainer
Additional “Barbershop 2” Resources:
“Barbershop 2” Photo Gallery
“Barbershop 2” Trailer, Credits, and Soundtrack News
