He’s Pride’s favourite funny man who begins his assault on the big screen in earnest this year with the buddy cop comedy Ride Along. Afua Adom took ten minutes out with Kevin Hart, to discuss taking over the world and Beyoncé making him feel sexy.
Tell me a little bit about your movie Ride Along.
Ride Along is a smash hit right now so I’m excited about it. It’s an action buddy comedy starring Ice Cube and myself. I play a guy named Ben Barber who is a security guard in love with the thought of becoming a cop. Ice Cube plays James Payton a detective who is not in love with the idea of me becoming a cop because I’m trying to marry his sister. To scare me out of what I want to do he takes me on a ride along, puts up all these fake obstacles to do along the way to try and scare me out of trying to be a cop. I find out that they’re fake so I try and do things to show that I can be a cop but I do it at the wrong time putting us on a real bad position. It ends up this big serious ordeal that we’ve got ourselves into. It’s very funny though.
You’ve got quite a few films coming out this year. What was it like working on all those films and your tour DVD at the same time?
I’m a focused individual so I just put that work in and when you work hard you get great results. So I did Let Me Explain, Ride Along, About Last Night, Think Like A Man 2, Grudge Match – they were done back to back and now I’m about to do a movie with Will Ferrell called Get Hard. These are things I worked hard to get to; now that I’m here I don’t want to turn my back on these opportunities. I welcome them and I’m taking them all full speed.
Tell me what’s on your iPod now.
‘Eye of the Tiger’ – that’s my workout song. I also work out to Jay Z’s Magna Carta… album; Beyoncé’s new album makes me feel sexy. And also, I’ll just throw this in there but this might shock you, a little bit of Katy Perry’s new album too, I love it.
What was the first thing on your mind this morning?
How can I take over the world?
How do you think you can do that?
By continuing to do what I do now, by working as hard as I can, honing my craft, whether that be stand-up, acting, writing or producing. I’m spreading myself all over so the best way to get what I want is by putting everything into it.
What do you think is the most underrated thing in the world?
Being a father.
When was the last time you cried and why?
My daughter asked me to take her to the father daughter dance at her school. It’s gonna be a big event, I can’t wait.
Do you have a hidden talent?
I’m an athlete. So whether that is basketball, football, baseball, tennis – I’m an athlete. Whatever sport it is I relish it.
If you weren’t an actor, comedian or producer do you think you would be in sports?
If I’d chosen to there are sports that I definitely could have been successful in like track and field, swimming, you know, diving, I’m a pretty well rounded individual.
Tell me something that no one else knows about you.
I am an emotional person and a loving person and at the end of the day I will drop all of this success for my kids if I had to.
Ride Along is out now in DVD and Blue-Ray.
