Martin Lawrence has addressed the long wait for Bad Boys for Life.
The 54-year-old actor reprises his role as Inspector Marcus Burnett in the third film in the Bad Boys series – which also stars Will Smith as Detective Lieutenant Mike Lowrey and comes almost two decades after the release of the 2003 sequel — and he revealed the delay was because the performers felt that the script lacked quality.
He told GQ: “The script wasn’t right. And Will, to his credit, refused to do the movie until the script was right. It wouldn’t have been a good movie. We didn’t want that.
“We wanted to do a sequel where people would go, ‘Oh, man, that’s what I’m talking about. It just gets better.'”
The Big Momma’s House star felt frustrated being unable to give fans an answer as to when the film would be released until now.
Lawrence explained: “I don’t really dwell on that now. But I mean, probably at that time, I was like, ‘Oh, man’. People were asking me, and I had no answer for them.
“I was asking myself that question. I was asking other people, ‘When are we going to do it?’ I was asking (producer) Jerry Bruckheimer, ‘When are we going to do this movie?’ ”
He also revealed that a back injury prevented him from getting into shape for the film, although he insisted he has “no excuses.”
He said: “If you see the movie, I’m a little heavier in the movie, so you know, it’s true. I wanted to be in shape enough to get through it and be able to deliver.
“I have no excuses, but I had hurt my back in a New Year’s Eve show right before we did Bad Boys, so I couldn’t work out or anything for the whole movie. All I could do is eat. That was it. So I’m glad we had the stuntmen because they do a great job.”
