Frank Rich: Every moment has to pay off.
Chris Rock: In this sense, comedyβs really fair. Itβs not like music, where you can hire Timbaland and he gives you a beat and a song, and even though you canβt sing itβs a hit. Comedy, especially stand-up comedy, itβs like: Whoβs funny?
Itβs a ruthless marketplace.
Itβs the only thing that smacks Hollywood out of its inherent racism, sexism, anti-ΒSemitism. It makes people hire people that they would never hire otherwise. Do they really want to do a show with Roseanne Barr? No, they want a thin blonde girl.
But sheβs funny.
Sheβs just funnier than everybody. Iβm not even sure they wanted to do a Seinfeld show, but heβs just funnier than everybody.
Heβs not a matinee idol. Heβs Jewish, nerdy. And recently he said publicly he was somewhere on the autism spectrum as a comedian.
He bores easily. I bore easily. Not because Iβm on some spectrum, but because I hear so many conversations again and again. So many people come up to you, and not enough people try to take into account what youβve heard already.
Letβs put it this way. Take Anchorman. Now switch the directors of Anchorman and Gone Girl and give them their movies to do. Adam McKayβs going to get closer to Gone Girl than Fincher is going to get to Anchorman.
Talk to me a little about the trajectory of Top Five. I gather there was wild enthusiasm at the premiere in Toronto and a bidding war β and now this very personal, independent movie is on a fast track. Has this been exciting?
Thereβs a humongous screening in Toronto. All the buyers are there. All the critics are there. I believe the bids were coming in before the movie was over.
Thatβs the ADD of the industry writ large.
They had a little after-party at the Soho House in Toronto. And you know, youβre just shaking hands. Itβs the Lionsgate people, and itβs the Fox 2000 people and Paramount and Screen Gems. βI hope weβre doing it with you. I hope weβre doing it with you.β Itβs like running for office.
Theyβre jockeying for distribution rights.
Yeah. Everybodyβs on the phone all night, essentially. Itβs like election returns. Itβs at 6. Itβs at 10. You know what I mean? A lot of money for a film at a festival is like $3 million, so for a movie to sell for $12.5 million is unheard of.
How are they opening the movie? In major cities first?
You know what? Theyβre getting greedy, which is scaring me a little bit. It was supposed to be New York and L.A. the 5th, and then the rest of the country on the 12th. Now theyβre just going for the whole country on the 12th. It feels like theyβre going to go for 2,000 screens. Every screeningβs gone amazingly well, but something inside me keeps saying, This is a little movie.
So if the movie opens, and itβs disappointing, how do you think youβll react? I mean you care, obviously, but β¦
I mean, you care, but suppose, what, the movie makes a billion dollars? Itβs not going to affect my day with my kids. If it makes two cents, itβs not going to affect my day with my kids. Fine, the movie comes out Friday, Saturday I will take Zahra to gymnastics. I hope Annieβs out. Weβll go see Annie.
Iβm always scared, though. I remember Sacha Cohen a week or two before Borat came out. I remember him being scared. He was like, βI donβt know if the tracking was right,β or whatever. It was supposed to open in about 2,000 screens, and they opened it in 800. It actually played better in 800, because it played to a packed house. I like the concept of every house packed. But who knows? The marketing costs are more than the movie. Some of that is them charging themselves. Paramountβs paying Viacom. Viacom owns MTV, BET, Comedy Central. So if youβre paying for a commercial on Comedy Central β it could be $20 million, it could be $5 million, it could be $50 million. Who the hell knows what the hell theyβre really spending?
Itβs bookkeeping. Whatβs your relationship with the Hollywood power structure? How do you deal with the failures youβve had there?
Iβm still on the table, which is good. No oneβs yanked me off. You can be behind and on the table. I never take any of it personally. Itβs all money, especially when youβre talking about playing a lead of anything. I guess if youβre a supporting character, friendships may come into play here and there β strings can be pulled in the lower echelons. But as far as being a leading man, thereβs a printout, and thereβs how much the movie made here, here, and here. How do you do in Budapest? How do you do in Calgary? Germany? And they make the decision.
Does all that make you want to release on your own?
I was talking to Steve McQueen a couple weeks ago about this. People come up to us and are like, βGet the funding yourself, and put it out yourself.β Dude, I canβt run a candy store.
Do you like directing?
I do. I like the control. I like creating a world. Itβs your world. If you want gravity in it, thereβs gravity. If thereβs not, things will float. And I like to create a tone. If thereβs anything Iβm proud of with this movie, itβs that we got a really good comedic tone that can be funny and real at the same time.
Read the entire conversation between Chris Rock and Frank Rich on Vulture.
Chris Rock is damn funny!
With Trayvon, everybody said oh, with Michael, ev’bady said daimn! With garner, its gaddaimn. Repect Chris Rock for speaking out at least.
Every moment has to pay off. I definitely will go to see this film Top Five.
I love Chris Rock. An intelligent dude any how you look at him. I will give him the support for this film Top Five.
Interesting conversation with Chris Rock, always never disappoint.