By 1993, Dave Chappelle’s star was on the rise after his breakout performance as Ahchoo in Mel Brooks’s Robin Hood: Men in Tights. From there, he would land roles in such notable films as The Nutty Professor, Con Air, Half Baked, and Blue Streak. However, before he played any of those parts, Chappelle was offered a movie that would’ve been the biggest thing he’d ever been involved with in his career had he signed on to do it. The movie was Forrest Gump, and even as a nobody, Chappelle didn’t think it was a good fit for him to appear as Gump’s Army buddy Benjamin Buford “Bubba” Blue.
In a 2001 interview with Conan O’Brien, Chappelle said he hated the script after first reading it. When his agent at the time asked him what was wrong with it, Chappelle explained that since the main character was mentally disabled, it would be difficult for him to watch the guy out-achieve him for two-and-a-half hours. “This guy’s doing more by accident than I’ll ever dream of doing,” he told O’Brien. He started to get mad at the idea and thought to himself, “Who could be dumber than Forrest Gump?” “His Black friend, that’s who,” Chappelle continued.
The film went on to gross over $678 million worldwide. “That hurt a little bit,” Chappelle admitted, reflecting on his decision. “Who knew?” When O’Brien pointed out that people would be walking up to him and asking him to do the “shrimp” line all the time if he’d taken the job, Chappelle joked, “I’ll do the ‘shrimp’ line for that kind of money.”
Although Chappelle passed on the opportunity that time around, he would go on to play Tom Hanks’s friend in 1998’s You’ve Got Mail. He also did a parody of Forrest Gump in 1997:
Other people who turned down the role of “Bubba” include Ice Cube and David Alan Grier. Grier had similar feelings to Chappelle when it came to the part, telling Busy Philipps in 2018, “If I’m going to be playing a mentally challenged person, I got to be the lead. I can’t be no mentally challenged sidekick.”
Rapper Tupac Shakur auditioned for the role at one point as well, which eventually went to Mykelti Williamson.
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