Chris Rock wants your vote Comedian runs for president in 'Head of State'

Carla Meyer, Chronicle Staff Writer Sunday, March 30, 2003

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi...284528.DTL

Chris Rock's new movie about politics, "Head of State," came out in the middle of a war. But that doesn't make its comedy especially timely, he says.

"War is the extreme -- you can't get more political than that -- but if I had released the movie a year ago, we would be talking about some other event, " Rock said during a recent stop in San Francisco. "There's always something going on."

Nevertheless, "Head of State," which Rock co-wrote, directed and stars in as a patsy presidential candidate, pokes gentle fun at Americans' occasional myopia. His character's political rival, for instance, uses the catchphrase, "God bless America -- and nowhere else!"

"It's saying, 'Let's pay attention to the world,' " said Rock, 37, dapper in a black suit and more soft-spoken than his strident stage persona suggests. "The world" includes the working poor whom his character champions in the film,

people who "work two jobs just to be broke."

"Poor people are the ones who go to war," Rock said. "People in Congress and the Senate, their kids aren't in the military. Black people make up 12 percent of the population and 20 percent of the military."

"Head of State's" puppeteers are neither Democrat nor Republican. There's no longer enough distinction, says Rock, who relocated to Washington, D.C., to soak up the Beltway scene while writing the screenplay with frequent collaborator Ali LeRoi.

"Especially with Enron and all that corporate stuff," Rock said. "People said, 'Help us,' and both sides said, 'Sorry, we can't do anything, because we're in this, too.' "

Rock, among the most socially conscious comics working today, says celebrities encounter a lose-lose situation by speaking out about politics. First, there's the "who cares?" factor, and then there are talk-radio and cable provocateurs waiting to pounce.

Celebrities "are made to look bad," he said. "It's a mismatch."

Rock knows something of how it works, having put others on the hot seat on his HBO "Chris

Rock Show," which ran from 1997 to 2000. Rock grilled actors, musicians and politicians about issues both serious and silly.

"I was never a bully," Rock said. "I didn't bring people there to make them look bad, and I let them get their point across."

But it was clear that Rock was in charge on the show, as he was in his landmark 1996 comedy special, "Chris Rock: Bring the Pain," in which he skewered the black bourgeoisie and challenged white Americans' perceptions of black society. But his film work, including the recent "Down to Earth" and "Bad Company," has tended to tone down his electric presence. That's partly why he took the reins on "Head of State."

"I used to backseat-direct on movies -- like suggesting camera angles -- which isn't very nice, though I was never malicious about it," Rock said. "I wasn't satisfied with my last couple of movies."

In "Head of State," Rock influenced the whole production, from wardrobe to music. "It has a flavor unlike any of my other movies," said Rock, whose flourishes include having rapper Nate Dogg and some scantily clad video vixens as an updated Greek chorus.

"Head of State" also offers Rock's daring comic pairing with Bernie Mac, as his character's brother and running mate. Comedians are a notoriously insecure lot, and few would have the guts to play opposite a red-hot talent like Mac.

"Hey, Morris Day upstaged Prince in 'Purple Rain,' but it was still Prince's movie," Rock said. Working off such a pro brought scenes "to a whole other level," Rock says.

Rock lives in Los Angeles with his wife, publicist Malaak Compton-Rock, and baby daughter Lola, but he still hangs out with single buddies Adam Sandler and David Spade, his colleagues on "Saturday Night Live" in the early 1990s. After "Bring the Pain" shot Rock to a level of stardom he had never achieved on the show, "SNL" creator Lorne Michaels asked him back to guest-host. Rock says he won't do it again.

"Because you're alumni, people really expect you to come in and be better than everybody else, better than the people who do it every week," Rock said.

The idea for "Head of State" came before "SNL," when he was still a teenager working in New York comedy clubs.

"I had the idea when Geraldine Ferraro ran for vice president (in 1984) that she was probably going to lose but that it made the party look good for the next election," Rock said. The idea went into a notebook of movie scenarios he's kept "since the fourth grade," along with other notebooks of stand-up material.

"It makes me feel better to have them, when my friends computers' crash and they lose all their material," Rock said with a chuckle. He became old enough to play a presidential candidate just as two African Americans took key Cabinet posts.

"With Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell, I felt like it was time to do (the movie)," Rock said. "I didn't want it to be like with black quarterbacks -- now there are too many of them."

Rock can foresee a black president in the future. "Colin Powell's not president because he didn't run," he said, adding that San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown could be a contender as well.

"If George W. Bush can be president," Rock said with a grin, "then Willie Brown certainly can be."

cool. this could be funny. american myopia needs a good kick in the arse to make it see straight sometimes.

That should make Morris feel good...