Jamie Foxx Once Admitted To Being Jealous Of His Friend Martin Lawrence

Comedic actors usually have to scale much steeper mountains than their dramatic peers. Sometimes, this extra motivation to succeed leads to positive character development. Other times, it leads to senseless fighting between our beloved comedy giants. Over the years, we've witnessed huge feuds between comedians that are too numerous to count. Fortunately, there's also plenty of camaraderie in the comedy world, which has birthed some pretty iconic television duos. One of the less-talked-about comedic friendships exists between Jamie Foxx and Martin Lawrence — though the former once admitted to being jealous of the latter.

Foxx and Lawrence never made magic together in an official capacity, but they definitely tried. In 2009, the duo surprised BET Awards fans with a skit called "Skank Robbers," which combined two of the duo's most controversial sketch characters: Shenehneh and Wanda. While the previously-promised project never came to fruition, Lawrence was still open to the idea as of December 2022. "I would love to see a movie with Sheneneh," Lawrence shared while speaking with Jimmy Fallon (via Atlanta Black Star). "We were supposed to do a movie with Sheneneh and Jamie Foxx with Wanda, but that never came about. If we could ever get that together, I think y'all would love this." Despite their obvious onscreen chemistry, Foxx harbored feelings of jealousy toward Lawrence. Here's why.

While completing a press run for his Netflix show, "Dad, Stop Embarrassing Me!" Jamie Foxx revealed that he and his co-star, David Allen Grier were once envious of Martin Lawrence's history of playing multiple characters on screen. "The thing in our back pocket is characters," revealed Foxx during an interview with The Grio. "We'll bring all these different things back because we secretly are both jealous of Martin Lawrence. The Martin Lawrence show [Martin] when he played all the characters like, 'Yo, man, this is the time. We get another crack at this, we about to crank them characters out.'"

During the original run of "Martin," Lawrence portrayed a wide range of background characters who popped up whenever the show needed a little extra spice. According to Ebony, his most memorable roles included Shenehneh, Roscoe, Jerome, and Dragonfly Jones. In Lawrence's opinion, however, Shenehneh was his "biggest" character from "Martin." During a Facebook Watch interview with Snoop Dogg, Lawrence said, "Well, I would say the biggest would be Shenehneh." He continued, "Shenehneh was next door. She was more in the show than Jerome was. You know, and she just had a more integral part than Jerome did," although he admitted: "Romey-Rome was the man."

Honestly, Jamie Foxx's recollection sounds more like thinly-veiled admiration than anything else. But a little healthy competition has never hurt anyone — friends included. This also applies to impersonations, which may be why Jamie Foxx once imitated Martin Lawrence's signature personality back in the '90s. Despite any possible past issues, both Foxx and Lawrence have maintained their friendship over the years. Recently, Lawrence commented on Foxx's recent health crisis, which the public first learned of in April 2023.

"Well, I hear he's doing better... " said Lawrence to Extra. "My prayers go out for him every night and just wishing the best for him, one of the best that we got in Hollywood. Not only one of the best entertainers, but a good person." Lawrence also took to his Instagram in May to publicly support Foxx. "My family and I are lifting you up in prayer. Much love and many blessings my brotha @iamjamiefoxx," Lawrence captioned a photo of him and Foxx.