Frank Rich: Every moment has to pay off.
Chris Rock: In this sense, comedyโs really fair. Itโs not like music, where you can hire Timbaland and he gives you a beat and a song, and even though you canโt sing itโs a hit. Comedy, especially stand-up comedy, itโs like: Whoโs funny?
Itโs a ruthless marketplace.
Itโs the only thing that smacks Hollywood out of its inherent racism, sexism, anti-ยญSemitism. 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 sheโs funny.
Sheโs just funnier than everybody. Iโm not even sure they wanted to do a Seinfeld show, but heโs just funnier than everybody.
Heโs not a matinee idol. Heโs 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 Iโm 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 youโve heard already.
Letโs put it this way. Take Anchorman. Now switch the directors of Anchorman and Gone Girl and give them their movies to do. Adam McKayโs 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 โ and now this very personal, independent movie is on a fast track. Has this been exciting?
Thereโs 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.
Thatโs the ADD of the industry writ large.
They had a little after-party at the Soho House in Toronto. And you know, youโre just shaking hands. Itโs the Lionsgate people, and itโs the Fox 2000 people and Paramount and Screen Gems. โI hope weโre doing it with you. I hope weโre doing it with you.โ Itโs like running for office.
Theyโre jockeying for distribution rights.
Yeah. Everybodyโs on the phone all night, essentially. Itโs like election returns. Itโs at 6. Itโs 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? Theyโre 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 theyโre just going for the whole country on the 12th. It feels like theyโre going to go for 2,000 screens. Every screeningโs gone amazingly well, but something inside me keeps saying, This is a little movie.
So if the movie opens, and itโs disappointing, how do you think youโll react? I mean you care, obviously, but โฆ
I mean, you care, but suppose, what, the movie makes a billion dollars? Itโs not going to affect my day with my kids. If it makes two cents, itโs not going to affect my day with my kids. Fine, the movie comes out Friday, Saturday I will take Zahra to gymnastics. I hope Annieโs out. Weโll go see Annie.
Iโm always scared, though. I remember Sacha Cohen a week or two before Borat came out. I remember him being scared. He was like, โI donโt know if the tracking was right,โ 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. Paramountโs paying Viacom. Viacom owns MTV, BET, Comedy Central. So if youโre paying for a commercial on Comedy Central โ it could be $20 million, it could be $5 million, it could be $50 million. Who the hell knows what the hell theyโre really spending?
Itโs bookkeeping. Whatโs your relationship with the Hollywood power structure? How do you deal with the failures youโve had there?
Iโm still on the table, which is good. No oneโs yanked me off. You can be behind and on the table. I never take any of it personally. Itโs all money, especially when youโre talking about playing a lead of anything. I guess if youโre a supporting character, friendships may come into play here and there โ strings can be pulled in the lower echelons. But as far as being a leading man, thereโs a printout, and thereโs 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, โGet the funding yourself, and put it out yourself.โ Dude, I canโt run a candy store.
Do you like directing?
I do. I like the control. I like creating a world. Itโs your world. If you want gravity in it, thereโs gravity. If thereโs not, things will float. And I like to create a tone. If thereโs anything Iโm proud of with this movie, itโs 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.