Imagine if we had been introduced to Tiffany Haddish before Girls Trip?
That was almost a possibility when Chris Rock offered the budding comedian a role in his star-studded 2014 flick Top Five. There was only one problem: They wanted her to expose her breasts. And let’s just say, Haddish was not here for it.
The Last O.G. star recalled the story as part of a roundtable discussion with The Hollywood Reporter, explaining why she “didn’t want the role” and had no problem telling her management team that.
“You know, when I first hit the scene, I was offered a lot of roles where they want you to expose your breasts,” she stated. “I remember that movie that Chris Rock did [Top Five] and it’s like he meets the two girls and they have a threesome and then Cedric [the Entertainer] gets in there and he’s supposed to ‘blah’ all over their faces — just let that baby batter go all up in their face. And it was like, ‘Tiffany, they’re offering you the role.’ And I was like, ‘I don’t want that role. I’m a stand-up comedian and I don’t let people do that in my face in real life, so why would I do it in this movie?’ Like, you ought to have a little bit of respect for me, period. God made this face for a reason, and you’re not going to disrespect it.”
While we may know Haddish for her bold comedy and outrageous antics, she’s always been clear of the vision she’s had for her career. And the focus is on her jokes, not her body.
“I feel like sometimes my representation tries to get me to go outside my lane, and if it is against my morals — and I do have some, I know I’m a little wild, but I do have standards — then somebody might get fired. It’s like, I’m a company, I’m a brand, and if you try to go against the policy of the company, you might not need to be working here anymore. So my people, we have weekly conversations about where I’m at mentally, what I want to do. And right now, almost everything I’m doing, I’m producing.”
Haddish’s story is an important lesson for women everywhere: you don’t have to lessen your morals to get ahead. If Haddish had taken the nude role, who is to say she would have later gotten the role in Girls Trip, kicking off her now hugely successful career?