From Girls Trip and Night School to Like a Boss and The Last O.G., Tiffany Haddish has starred in a number of films and TV shows over the years. There have also been projects she's turned down.
The 40-year-old actress discussed the roles she's passed on during The Hollywood Reporter's virtual Comedy Actress Roundtable with Elle Fanning, Robin Thede, Jane Levy, Jameela Jamil and Amy Sedaris.
"You know, when I first hit the scene, I was offered a lot of roles where they want you to expose your breasts," Haddish said. "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."
Haddish then said she feels like her representation sometimes "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," she continued. "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."
She also spoke about the kinds of offers she's recently been receiving from casting directors.
"You know what's been coming my way a lot lately? The mama who's been through something, whose kid ends up being hurt in some way and fighting for justice. And the baby's sick or I'm trying to get out of jail," Haddish said. "Like, no, I'm not doing that. I know people who live that, I'm not doing it. Unless it's super, super good. The writing has to be impeccable. A lot of times it's telling these stories that could be powerful, but the writing [turns out to be] garbage."
In addition, Haddish suggested she's been taking time to reflect on future career moves amid social distancing.
"Oh, I'm definitely choosing differently," she said during the roundtable. "First, I've been napping, and I think naps are magic. So when we get back out there, I'm definitely putting in my contracts that I have to have a one-hour nap. That means nobody talking to me, nobody trying to go, 'Hey, can we go over these lines?' I need one hour to shut my eyeballs. And I'm definitely going to be telling different types of stories and my comedy is going to evolve, too. I want to start doing things that represent Black history and not just the slave stuff because we past all that, OK?'"
She also said she'd "love to do a movie about Flo-Jo" and that she wants "to remake Who Framed Roger Rabbit."
To hear the full roundtable discussion, check out The Hollywood Reporter's virtual Comedy Actress Roundtable.