Chris Rock isn’t exactly who you remember him to be.
He likes to take his time. “What am I trying to say?” he asks himself repeatedly in conversation, pausing to truly consider that question before continuing to speak. And he doesn’t speak at all on an empty stomach. “I don’t want to say something mean and get canceled,” Rock says more than once while reaching for a bite of a pastrami sandwich. Sure, it’s just a joke. But he’s also a celebrity whose friends over the years have included Dave Chappelle and Kanye West. He’s seen firsthand what can happen when you don’t eat your pastrami.
Thea Traff for Variety
That isn’t to say he’s shed the opinionated, incendiary persona that caught Eddie Murphy’s eye at a New York comedy club one night when Rock was just 19, leading to his being cast in Murphy’s “Beverly Hills Cop II” (1987) and later “Saturday Night Live” (1990-93). Rock was one of the few celebrities to publicly predict Donald Trump would win the 2016 election, and speaking about the president today, Rock says, “I’m not a fan. But it’s weird when somebody gets one thing right, and the one thing almost clears them of all their other sins. The news is fake. He got that right.”
Still, Rock has formed a habit of making concessions to his least generous interpreters before anyone has even criticized him. “People have their reasons, and nobody’s wrong,” he says after remarking that it’s difficult to find actresses interested in roles that involve nudity. Referencing some Black actors’ grievances about the prevalence of Brits and nepo babies in Hollywood — a position he disagrees with and satirizes in his upcoming film “Misty Green” — he says, “They’re valid. I’m not going to dismiss anyone.”
