Martin Lawrence Says He Turned Down Offer to Costar with Jackie Chan in “Rush Hour”: 'Not Enough Money'

Lawrence said he "was happy for" Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan after their 1998 action movie became a box office hit

Martin Lawrence is revealing he turned down an opportunity to star in another major buddy cop franchise.

When Lawrence, 59, appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon with his Bad Boys: Ride or Die costar, Will Smith, on Tuesday, June 4, the actor and comedian shared that Jackie Chan once asked him to costar in Rush Hour before Chris Tucker was involved in the series.

"Jackie Chan asked me to star in Rush Hour with him, but I turned it down," Lawrence said, as he, Smith, 55, and host Jimmy Fallon played The Tonight Show's true confessions game.

"Jackie Chan likes Black people," Smith said in reaction, as he and Fallon, 49, deliberated. "Where did I take the call? He did my show, so we talked somewhere in between there. We talked in person, and then we had a dinner."

"Wasn't enough money," Lawrence added, when Fallon asked why he decided to turn down Chan's offer.

Related: Martin Lawrence Shuts Down Health Concerns After Viral Clip From Bad Boys Premiere: 'I’m Healthy as Hell'

Lawrence confirmed the story was true soon after. "I was happy for Chris, that's what it was supposed to be," he said when asked whether if he regretted turning the movie down after it became a box office hit. "Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan, and they brought a beautiful franchise with Rush Hour."

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Rush Hour is a 1998 action movie that starred Chan, now 70, and Tucker, 52, as two police officers who team up to rescue a Chinese diplomat's kidnapped daughter in Los Angeles. It was released in theaters three years after Lawrence and Smith originally teamed up for the first Bad Boys movie.

Chan and Tucker's movie became the ninth highest-grossing movie of 1998 at the domestic box office and spawned two sequels, released in 2001 and 2007, respectively.

Related: Will Smith Recalls Emotional First Day with Martin Lawrence on Bad Boys: Ride or Die: 'I Love You, Brother'

In December 2022, Chan teased that he may make a fourth movie in the Rush Hour franchise. "We're talking about part four right now," he said at a film festival in Saudi Arabia at the time, according to Deadline.

Meanwhile, Lawrence is embarking on his own fourth entry in the Bad Boys series with costar Smith; the duo return to Miami as detectives Marcus Bennett and Mike Lowrey in Bad Boys: Ride or Die, a sequel to 2020's Bad Boys for Life.

The movie is directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah and also features Alexander Ludwig, Vanessa Hudgens, Eric Dane, Tasha Smith, Ioan Gruffudd, Paola Nuñez, Jacob Scipio, Melanie Liburd and Tiffany Haddish in its cast.

Bad Boys: Ride or Die releases in theaters June 7.

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