I want to talk about Chris Rock…
In 2015 I was honored to sit down across from the legendary comedian to interview him for 5-minutes about his new movie “Top 5.” Rock not only wrote and directed the movie, but he starred in it himself. Thanks to his GI Jane joke years later, the world would finally see what I saw in him that day.
If you’ve ever seen a movie that hit the big screen you probably have no idea how much work it took for that movie to get in theatres. From someone taking the time to sit down and write it, to the numerous rewrites. Then you have to sell it to a production company if you don’t have the funds to create the movie on your own. Now that your script is sold you now have to cast the movie with actors that’ll make the words jump off the page. Great! Now your movie is fully casted. Time to shoot! Time to hire the crew; makeup artists, cameramen, lighting, sound, etc. Fingers crossed that you’re dealing with professionals that will show up on time and do their part. Nothing extra, just THEIR part.
Your movie is shot and now you can relax. Wrong! Now you have to shop your movie around to a distributor. Think Lionsgate, Paramount, The Weinstein Company…is that still a thing?
A lot of movies get picked up from distributors at Film Festivals and Top 5 was no different. After doing well at the Toronto International Film Festival Rocks movie was picked up by Paramount Pictures. Surely now you can relax. WRONG!!! Fast forward to the press tour where the actors bring attention to the movie's release. Access Hollywood, The Today Show and Entertainment Tonight have entered the chat. During the press tour actors sit in hotel rooms for hours getting interviewed by journalists from major media outlets for what they call in the entertainment industry - PRESS JUNKETS. This is where I met Chris Rock.
Sidenote: I also met AJ Calloway in the hotel hallway. AJ is a correspondent for the show “Extra,” but I know him from BET’s flagship show “106 & Park.” After telling him about my experience hosting 106 & Park 12 times in 6 months he said 4 simple words to me - “Get your own shit.”
Back to Chris.
I interviewed the entire cast of Top 5, so think Gabrielle Union, JB Smoove, Rosario Dawson, etc. Out of the entire cast Chris Rock was by far my most uninteresting interview. Everything I said fell flat. The interview was so bad that this happened 7 years ago and some of my closest friends still have no idea that I interviewed him.
The next day I’d find out from a NY Times article that Chris was going through a nasty divorce from his wife. Aha! There it was. His personal life was in disarray but he still showed up to the press junket and did his job. After all the prep work to get his movie off the ground; from the writing, to the casting, to the film festival and now the press tour. During a time he should be celebrating his success he was battling out in court with his divorce. Now there he was in a hotel room sitting across from an amateur journalist answering questions he could care less about. I commend him on being such a professional and rolling with the punches. Although I thought the interview fell flat, he still hopped into my selfie at the end of our brief chat. The little comedian in me was jumping for joy. I had a picture with Chris Rock!
Rock was more than a comedian to me, he was a philosopher. There are things he was saying in the 90’s that comedians don’t have the balls to say right now. It’s a combination of them being afraid to say it and the fact that planet Earth is no longer 75% water, but 75% eggshells. A lot of his jokes hit home to me, but 1 in particular stands out. I’m paraphrasing here but it goes: “A man will see his boy with a good woman and say ‘man, I gotta get me a woman like her.’ A woman would see her girl with a good man and say ‘man, I gotta get…HIM.’” It was true then and it’s true now.
Rocks words permeated through the fabric of American culture and decades of being in the spotlight solidified his legendary status. Then came the infamous 2022 Oscars. The slap heard all around the world came at the hand of another Hollywood legend who’s name will not be mentioned in this post. I’ll call him Shark Tales. I respect the hell out of Shark Tales, but this post is about Chris’s greatness.
Chris Rock not only took the uncalled for hit to the face but he maintained his professionalism while under duress and continued hosting the show. Bravo Chris! If you didn’t like him before you’d be a fool not to like him now. I learned a long time ago that talent will get you through the door but your character will keep you in the room. Chris Rock’s character shone right through the assault and he turned it into a teaching moment. It was Bruce Lee who said “control your emotions or your enemies will use them against you.” I got into my fair share of fights as a youngster but I quickly learned as a black male teenager that putting your hands on someone was grounds for police attention. We as black men already get enough attention from the police so why give them a reason to come over.
What if Chris retaliated? That would've been an embarrassing moment for black people everywhere. 2 successful black men fighting each other on the biggest stage in Hollywood. I don’t care about what the public headlines would’ve said. I care about what racists privately would’ve said at the dinner table.
As a successful black human being you will always represent other black human beings. Don’t get it twisted. This isn’t our world. We control the culture but we don’t dictate the laws of the land. Shark Tales was honored that night with the highest honor in the movie industry - an Oscar. Due to his own actions that’s not how the 2022 Oscars will be remembered. The fact that Beyoncé opened up the show and no one was talking about her powerful performance speaks to the degree of how ugly that moment was. And that’s Beyoncé.
In the 90’s everyone wanted to be like Mike, but in 2022 I’m teaching my 9-year old son how to be like Chris. Rock isn’t the hero we imagined, but he’s the hero we deserve.
