UNEASY Chris Rock

This 30 days of celebrating 30 years of Uneasy has less than a week left of posts, so please put forth any requests while you can. Today’s is Chris Rock, and this is one of my favorite stories in the book. 

My assistants and I had just wrapped a shoot in Englewood, New Jersey, and it was getting close to dinnertime. The main street had a number of fast food places, but a modest jerk-chicken place caught my eye. Having grown up in Toronto, I had a taste for this kind of food, so I asked the assistant who was driving to pull over so that I could get closer look. Both assistants thought that I was wasting our time, and said so.

When I walked in, there were three middle-aged African-American men casually hanging out in the front space. There was no one behind the counter, so I asked one of the men if the place was open. “Yes, it’s open.” “And is it good?” “Oh yeah, it’s good, I’m just waiting with my daughter for our order.” I looked at him as he told me this and thought that I recognized him. “Are you Chris Rock?” I asked. “Yes,” he replied.

I introduced myself and reminded him that we’d shot together three times. “So, the food is actually good then?” “Absolutely.” I went back to the van and told the assistants that the food was supposed to be good and that Chris Rock was in there. They really couldn’t believe it (mostly the Chris Rock part), but came along nonetheless.

We ended up chatting with Chris for about a half an hour, mostly about politics (it was June of 2008 and the election was just getting interesting). He was funny and relaxed and happy to just hang with us. The crazy thing was that I’d always thought that he didn’t like me, as he’d always been standoffish during our photo shoots, but after spending time together at the jerk-chicken shop, I’ve come to believe that he just doesn’t like having his picture taken.

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