Omar Gooding reveals he and Tyrese nearly had a fist fight over ‘Baby Boy’

The 2000 film directed by John Singleton remains a cult classic to this day.

Twenty-five years later, Baby Boy remains a cult classic. The John Singleton-directed vehicle became a breakthrough film for Tyrese and Taraji P. Henson. Still, fellow cast member Omar Gooding reveals that things almost came to a head between him and the Fast & Furious star.

In a sit-down interview with The Art of Dialogue, Gooding recalls how, despite having a great back-and-forth with Tyrese in front of the camera, things were completely different off of it—almost leading to the two getting into a fist fight.

“When we started the movie, clearly this was his big break, but it was also mine,” Gooding began. “He’s an established singer, I’m an established sitcom actor, so this was a big deal for both of us. But our approach was different. We spoke about acting and ways you think about lines and delivering them. But none of those choices involve being friends.”

Although Gooding respected Tyrese’s ambition about taking Baby Boy seriously and the singer’s belief that the two should be best friends since their characters Jody and Sweet Pea were, Gooding had a different mindset about filming.

“His thing was, come to my house, let’s run lines and stay over … I was like, ‘Nah. That’s work. I ain’t trying to work outside of work.’” Gooding recalls. The Smart Guy actor had his routine of having people at his house partying, shooting dice and more, which didn’t vibe with Tyrese.

“Is there any way we can go be alone? Like, can we talk, real quick?” Gooding recalls Tyrese telling him. “I said, ‘Yeah, follow me!’”

The two would get in their respective cars and head up to Rattlesnake Park near Northridge, California and once they exited their vehicles and walked up the hill, they nearly came to blows.

“It was like, you got something to say? Get it off your chest! Let’s talk like men!” Gooding says. “He was like, I don’t appreciate how you’re not helping me out with this and not reciprocating what I’m trying to do with this.”

Both men couldn’t come to a perfect understanding and went their separate ways, only speaking to each other when back on set for the film, still having great chemistry despite their dust-up. The two never did act in another movie together, but Tyrese kept close to director John Singleton. Most of the different actors thought things were cool when Tyrese decided to shoot the video for “Just A Baby Boy,” but apparently things hadn’t been resolved.

“My girlfriend at the time, Angell Conwell, calls me and says, ‘Are you at the shoot?’ I say, ‘Nah, I’m at the crib, what’s up?’ ‘You know they’re shooting a video for ‘Baby Boy … by your house, right now!”

Gooding immediately raced over to the set, wondering why the video was shot near his house and he wasn’t invited, but majority of the cast members from the film were there, including Henson, Singleton and others.

“I got out and was like, ‘Word … OK. You motherf–kas, you gon’ do this to me?! Up the street, huh?!” Gooding recalls. Eventually, he went to Snoop Dogg’s trailer to calm down after getting some acknowledgment from Singleton and Tyrese, but all Gooding did was smoke with the D-O-Double-G and eventually left. To this day, he still can’t stand hearing the song.

Gooding laughs, “If I bullied my way on there and jumped up there and just got in the scene and then they cut me out? That would be some on-site sh-t!”

Watch Gooding explain one of Hollywood’s previously unknown feuds below.