With his latest film earning rave reviews, described by some as the best work of his movie career, Chris Rock is back in the spotlight right when we need him most. There is no more salient voice on race in America, not to mention on most other subjects in America: marriage, sports, Kanye West.
In the run-up to the release of Top Five in the United States last December, Rock's commentary on the grand-jury verdicts in Ferguson and New York was trenchant, and his criticism of the movie business – "a white industry", he called it in an essay for The Hollywood Reporter – was like water in the desert of a normally tight-lipped Hollywood. Rock, it seems, is on a truth-telling spree.
And for the first time, Rock has also found a way to funnel his strong voice into a fictional film of his own. Top Five, a comedy that sparked a bidding war at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, is a big-screen breakthrough for the stand-up.
Rock's previous films as writer and director – 2003's Head of State and 2007's I Think I Love My Wife – were disappointments.
But he's clearly thrilled about Top Five, a romp through celebrity and New York in which he plays a version of himself: Andre Allen, a comic actor attempting to become a serious filmmaker.
In person, Rock appears much younger than his 50 years: “It’s a rich 50,” he says. “Rich 50 is about 35. Money’s the best lotion in the world.”
Over tea, he is as animated and forthcoming as ever as he discusses his new film, his career and life in general.
Do you feel as though you’ve finally cracked this nut, fitting yourself into your own movie?
I've got to do it again, but it feels like when I did my big Bring the Pain special for HBO. You've got to learn from your failures. You've got to really, really take them in. You can't shrug them off. You can't blame them on anyone else. You can't go: "Oh, that day it snowed!"
Did doing your Broadway play The Mother with the Hat, which you’ve said was the most fun you ever had in show business, lead to Top Five?
It just made me write characters. I look at the other movies I made, it wasn’t even like I was making movies. I was making posters. Like: black guy runs for president – poster! Some of them worked, some of them didn’t, but Andre Allen is a real guy, not like a guy just to service this movie.
It must have changed you as a performer, too, being accustomed to looking out at the audience?
Before we went out every night, Bobby [Cannavale] would lead and go: "Four walls. It's just us. Four walls. They're not there. Four walls." I realised in my acting, in all the movies, I was always playing the crowd. Even in a freaking movie, I'm kind of playing the crowd. Just the phrase "four walls" – I say it all the time. I said it while I was making Top Five. I'm really acting with somebody as opposed to Bob Hope-ing it.
You seem to be a student of stand-ups who have succeeded in other media: Seinfeld, Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, Woody Allen films and Adam Sandler’s movies.
I definitely watched all of those things before making this movie. I thought it was interesting that no one had made a movie like Curb … I love Stardust Memories. Love it, love it, love it. In a weird way, this movie is a combination of Stardust Memories and one of those [Richard] Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke walking-around movies.
You’ve said Top Five is partially about “black fame”...
The black performer has a responsibility to the community that, frankly, white performers don't have. They just get to be actors and writers and whatever. They get to pretty much do whatever they want. Hey, I love Dumb and Dumber. I love both of them. You can't be black and do the same thing. "I can't believe you're talking out of your ass. You're setting us back." Even the concept of role model. You never hear that white people are good role models. Never. The term role model is racist because it implies that my good behaviour is not natural, that I am behaving just to help out my people. I don't hit my wife because that's not something I do, not because I'm trying to help the race.
Do you think those different standards have also applied to President Barack Obama?
Michael Jordan was drafted third. The Houston Rockets drafted Hakeem Olajuwon. He’s a hall of famer. They’re fine. They’re happy. Yes, so Obama’s not Jordan. Obama’s Olajuwon. Won the championship. We wanted Muhammad Ali, we got Sugar Ray Leonard. Sugar Ray Leonard’s [expletive] good.
• On general release from today. Check with cinemas for timings
artslife@thenational.ae