January 15, 2015
First, what everyone wants to know: How does he feel about the rape allegations surrounding fellow comedian Bill Cosby?
His feelings, it turns out, are surprisingly tame.
From The Hollywood Reporter's cover profile, originally published in the Jan. 23 issue of the magazine:
"Downstairs, giant portraits of the comedians he most admires — Cosby, [Chris] Rock, [Eddie] Murphy, Richard Pryor, Martin Lawrence and Dave Chappelle — line the walls. I ask if he's thinking of getting rid of Cosby in the wake of allegations about the 77-year-old's conduct. 'I'm not going to take the picture down,' he says. 'The picture serves a purpose for me. These were the men who built a legacy doing what they love to do, which is telling jokes.'
Does he think Cosby is guilty? 'Right now, it's a lot of speculation,' he says. 'All I can do is just say my prayers, and my wishes go out to all of the women who are potentially involved. His personal life has nothing to do with me. I can't control it. I will never try. It doesn't stop me from being an admirer of his work. His work and his personal life are two separate things.'"
Hart spills lots of other goodies in the profile. For example, on why he doesn't touch topics like Ferguson: "I'm not interested in politics." And addressing the subject of race in comedy (and what crowds look like these days), which PhillyVoice.com covered on the local level, he had this to say: "I don't feed into the race game. I don't give it that much thought. I never have and never will."
To boot, Hart also made the rounds in the January/February issue of Esquire, where he runs through a snappy list of "what he's learned." And apparently, he says, the world's easy after Philadelphia.
Hart's latest comedy film is "The Wedding Ringer," screening in theaters now. See PhillyVoice.com's roundup of Hart films that are ready to stream from your living room.
