The joke Chris Rock regrets making

From Jay-Z, Kanye West and Questlove comes TOP FIVE starring Chris Rock, Rosario Dawson, Kevin Hart and more. Courtesy: Top Five Movie

He nailed it ... Chris Rock in Sydney. Picture: Cameron Adams Source: News Corp Australia

WRITER-DIRECTOR-ACTOR Chris Rock, in town to promote his Toronto-feted comedy Top Five, talks about turning 50, making movies for the hotel cleaner, and why he regrets THAT Jude Law Oscars joke.

You just turned 50. That's a time when a lot of people stop and take stock. Did you?

I probably started doing that around 48. It was like: OK, this thing is coming up. I've done everything I wanted to do for the most part. (So it was more like) do you want to be a better father, do you want to be a better friend, do you want to be a better son?

How did you celebrate?

I just hung out with my kids. It was my weekend with them. We went to the mall, went shopping and got them some stuff. It was kind of about them, but I wouldn't have had it any other way. It was great. They got me a cake and they sang Happy Birthday and they sprayed me with silly string.

Quite a team ... Rosario Dawson and Chris Rock in Top Five. Source: Supplied

You character in Top Five practices the 12-step AA program, which turns up surprisingly often in movies. Is that because addiction makes for good drama?

Addiction has been good to me in art, I gotta say. I played a crack-head in New Jack City a long time ago. I played an alcoholic on Broadway more recently (The Motherf---er With the Hat). It's good stuff for drama. And especially comedies. And especially movies where people direct themselves. I hate when I watch a movie where somebody directed themselves and they made themselves perfect. No names but I have seen it. You are thinking, 'Can the guy have one fault?'

In the movie, your character is haunted by the words of one influential critic. Was there a particularly harsh review you still haven't forgotten?

I don't remember the line but I did a movie CB4 a long time ago, the rap Spinal Tappish movie, and one critic rhymed his whole review: 'I paid 10 bucks and this movie sucks.' I don't mind a bad review, I just mind when they get personal.

So you do read them, then.

I read the (New York) Times every day. Why would I stop when it got to my film? I love a good A.O. Scott review. And by the way, they are right most of the time. I do some dumb comedy, they rip it apart. I do a documentary on hair and it gets great reviews.

Comedy of a kind ... Michael Keaton and Emma Stone in Birdman. Source: Supplied

There was a lot of talk, just after the bidding war at the Toronto Film Festival, that Top Five could be the film to break the Oscar comedy drought.

Guess what, didn't happen! I mean, Birdman is just about a comedy. It's a comedy for people that go to theatre. But it's not a comedy for the person who has to clean this room later. Hopefully Top Five works for both.

The two films are not thematically dissimilar.

Top Five is Birdman for people that make under $100,000 a year.

According to your leading lady, Rosario Dawson, you joke that she interviewed you for the job.

She did. She made me jump through hoops. She would not agree to do this movie. I said, 'Dude, come on. I wrote this part for you. It's perfect'. I got her eventually but it took a while.

Last chance ... Erica Long and Rock in Top Five. Source: Supplied

You have said that if you didn't get this movie right, you probably weren't going to get the opportunity to direct again.

How many times are you going to burn the meal before you order in? At some point, you as a sane person don't want to waste everybody's time. I mean, when should you go, 'I am 50'? Everybody has limitations.

On the other hand, you don't learn a craft overnight.

It probably took me 17 years to learn how to do decent stand-up. I had success but I didn't really find my voice until I had being doing it that long.

At times, you have pushed the envelope with your humour. Looking back, do you think you ever went too far?

I probably should have went easier on Jude Law at the Oscars. Other than that ... what's youth about? Are you going to waste your youth being safe? Then you get to middle age and you do whatever you have to do to pay your mortgage. And then when you get old you should get reckless again.

How might you do things differently?

You just gotta be sensitive to people. I was young, I honestly didn't know what the Oscars were. I mean, I knew what they were. I knew they were the show in which they give out the awards for excellence in cinema. I did not know they were a religion!

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