Kevin Hart Shows Brash Persona Only An Act At ‘Ride Along’ Premiere
Kevin Hart, when you see him on screen, is a brash, fast-talking, in-your-face loudmouth — the kind of guy who, while he’s definitely funny, would drive you crazy if you actually had to spend much time with him. Fortunately, that persona is not the real Kevin Hart, as the 34-year-old comedian and actor displayed at last night’s Hollywood premiere of his new movie, Ride Along.
“I’m a kid in the Hollywood candy store,” he told the New York Times Syndicate news service. “I get to work with people who have been doing this for a long, long time. It’s up to me to just stand there, watch how they work and appreciate that I’ve been invited to the party.”
His real-life humility derives from the fact that Kevin Hart was anything but an overnight success. He may be exploding onto the Hollywood scene right now. Ride Along is the first of three major Kevin Hart movies scheduled to hit screens in 2014. But at one point he found life on the comedy circuit so difficult he thought about giving up show business — for the shoe business.
But selling footwear is no longer on Kevin Hart’s agenda.
“I’m just glad all my hard work is paying off,” Hart told show business trade publication Variety. “You don’t work hard to take a break, you work hard to continue to have success and that what I plan on doing — to keep working hard and hope it continues to pay off.”
He makes a point, however, of saying that even his career takes a back seat to his two children.
“I am uncompromising when it comes to my kids’ time with me,” said Hart at the Ride Along premiere. “I’m a very committed father and really spend the time.”
Ride Along opens on Friday, January 17, and stars Kevin Hart alongside rapper turned movie-star Ice Cube. The 44-year-old who was born O’Shea Jackson echoes Kevin Hart’s humility at the course his own career has taken.
“I always tell people that if you gave me a pen and a piece of paper when I was a teenager and said, ‘Write out your career and how you want it to go.’ I would have shortchanged myself compared to what it’s been,” Ice Cube told the Movie Fanatic web site at the January 14 premiere.
For Kevin Hart, Ride Along will be followed by About Last Night on Valentine’s Day.
The movie, which Hart describes as “about how men approach relationships so differently than women,” is a remake of the 1986 film starring Jim Belushi in the role that Kevin Hart now assumes. That earlier film was in turn based on a 1974 play by David Mamet, Sexual Perversity in Chicago.
Later in the year, Kevin Hart appears in Think Like A Man Too, a sequel to the 2012 film based on a book by one of its stars, comedian Steve Harvey.
Kevin Hart also said that a sequel to Ride Along may be in the works as well.
