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Superstar comedian Chris Rock has been everywhere in the past week promoting his new film Top Five - which he also wrote and directed. Unsurprisingly, the comic had some interesting takes on the current race and politics. So what does Rock think about the state of the world?
Top Five revolves around a comic trying to star in a dramatic movie while marrying a reality TV star played by Gabrielle Union, wife of Dwyane Wade... but he runs into complications with a journalist, Rosario Dawson. It also stars JB Smoove and Tracy Morgan and has cameos from Jerry Seinfeld, Kevin Hart, Cedric the Entertainer.
In an extensive interview with Rolling Stone's Brian Hiatt, Rock admitted that he's grown as an artist, which is exactly the point of making art. "I've f*cked up as much as anybody," he said. "But I've been lucky enough not to repeat bad decisions - that's the key."
Rock also took on the idea of starring in a historical film, saying that he's happy with contemporary films, because anything pre-Jackson 5 is too tough.
"I don't want to be in anything that happened before the Jackson 5," said Rock. "Anything before them is just black misery. Everything before the Jackson 5 is essentially slavery, or close to it. So as far as I'm concerned, Michael, Marlon, Tito, Jermaine and Jackie ended slavery.
Rock also took on the idea of how much culture and attitudes have changed since he started out as a comedian, talking about times when he'd be driving around in a Corvette with a white girl and people would throw things at him. Society has changed, Rock says, and in super positive ways. "Today," he explains, "nobody's killing you for f*cking Gwyneth Paltrow."
(Photo : topfivemovie.com)
But at the same time, he points out, the way people react to Kanye West "is the way the culture responds to anybody who says they're great. They're not going to respond to him any different than they responded to Muhammad Ali."
As for the sexual assault allegations around comedy legend Bill Cosby, Rock told Hiatt, "It's hard, man. You separate the work from the thing, and you go, 'I really don't know what happened.'"
It was a sentiment echoed in a huge interview with New York Magazine, where Rock said, "I don't know what to say. What do you say? I hope it's not true."
Back to Top Five, obviously race plays a part in the movie, but Rock says he simply tried to keep everything as realistic as possible, which helped point out the way people think. Talking to Grantland's Rembert Browne, Rock points out, "I definitely made a point to tell Leslie [Jones] to tell me to 'Stay black' in one scene. No one tells Brad Pitt to 'Stay white.' 'Ben Affleck, stay white.' What the f*ck are you talking about, 'stay white?' I just tried to do a movie in a realistic tone."
hitfix.com has called Top Five "smarter and richer and more mature than the 'romantic comedy' needs to be, and seems to promise a whole new Chris Rock" and gave it a rave review. It's currently scoring very highly on Rotten Tomatoes. What do you think? Will you go and see Top Five now that it's out in cinemas?
Check out the trailer below:
