By Gill Pringle
“I don’t ever want to be in the back seat of a cop car in my life,” Kevin Hart smiles when we ask if he did an actual police ride as research for his comedy, Ride Along. “I would be there because of mistakes that I made, and that’s not a place of fun for me. I stay away from it. I don’t need to know anything. I’m fine.” The popular comedian’s understandable lack of research certainly didn’t hurt the prospects of the 2014 mismatched buddy flick, which was a major success at the US box office, and starred Hart as Ben Barber, a hapless high school security guard and wannabe cop constantly and usually hopelessly trying to impress the hardnosed detective brother (Ice Cube) of his fiancée.
A bundle of green at the box office means only one thing in Hollywood, and that’s a sequel, so the diminutive Hart is now back for Ride Along 2, which sees the still hapless Ben finally realising his dream of becoming a fully-fledged police officer. But despite Ben’s gun and badge, Ice Cube’s Detective James Payton – and pretty much everyone else – remains largely unimpressed. “You have to give Ben places to progress,” Hart says of his character. “He starts out very timid and weak, so it’s good to have him grow to a place of confidence where he wants to step up to the plate. In Ride Along 2, the respect that he’s receiving may not be on the level that he thinks it should be, but he is in a place of authority now.”
Ride Along 2 represents another jump up the ladder for stand-up comedian, Kevin Hart, who has appeared in a host of US hits, including Think Like A Man (and its sequel), Little Fockers, Death At A Funeral, The Wedding Ringer, and Get Hard, and currently stands as one of the biggest African-American talents in the entertainment industry. He sells out major stadiums; has a bundle of bestselling stand-up DVDs to his credit; and is a go-to man when it comes to awards ceremonies, notably teaming with Ken Jeong for a gut-busting bit at this year’s Golden Globes. Even Hollywood’s notoriously conservative major studios have their money on Kevin Hart, backing him not just as a niche “black” audience draw, but as a possible breakout talent. Significantly, Kevin Hart and Ice Cube have toured internationally with the Ride Along movies, which the studio see not just as comedies for the African-American market – like, say, the domestically successful but inconsequential offshore works of actor/director, Tyler Perry (Diary Of A Mad Black Woman, A Madea Christmas) – but as potential product for the rest of the world too.
That promotional work (as well as a role in the 2008 Aussie-shot rom-com adventure, Fool’s Gold, opposite Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson) has happily brought Kevin Hart to Australia. “What I loved the most about Australia was just interacting with the people,” the comic tells us. “Because I was there for so long shooting, it was easy to adapt and fall into place. The people were very nice, and very respectful. I then came back to do promotion for the first Ride Along movie. We did a whole lot of stuff. I was in Sydney, the Gold Coast, Byron Bay, Perth, Melbourne… Sydney is a good city, man. It’s a great party city, with great people, and great night life.”
With his ever-expanding success, does Hart have a wish list of people that he’d like to work with? “Amy Schumer is definitely on it,” he replies. “There are a lot of talented people in this business, but I’m a firm believer that when the time is right, you work with the people that you’re supposed to work with. I mean, me and Cube teaming up makes sense now. There was a point where I wanted to work with Cube, but the project wasn’t right. But you wait and you’re patient, and things happen. Me and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, it happened [on the upcoming comedy, Central Intelligence]. I didn’t go out and look for that, but it happened when it was supposed to.”
Despite all of his success, however, Kevin Hart is not without his own uncertainties. “Oh man, there’s always room for insecurities,” he smiles. “There’s just the question of whether you give in and succumb to them. I don’t. I laugh at them. My biggest insecurity now is probably my feet. I’ve got two ugly toe nails…two black toe nails. It’s not really an insecurity, it’s a joke now. If I’m at a beach, you’ll see me with my feet dug into the sand as far as possible. Other than that, I’m not too insecure. God made me the way that he did, and it’s my job to be happy with what God gave me. I take care of it, I work on it, and I’m always trying to improve. I don’t want to alter myself or the things that I was blessed with. I’ve always been a confident little guy. That’s something that I thank God for. I’ve never been insecure about my height…I’ve always embraced it and loved it and took it full steam ahead.”
Ride Along 2 is in cinemas now. Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain is available on DVD and Blu-ray from March 2.