Kevin Hart

Daniel: You're one of the most successful comedians in the world. You've built your career on comedy. I'm curious what made you wanna do a more serious role?

Kevin Hart: You know, just to show growth. Mm-hmm. I think, with anything in life, you always wanna progress. Having the opportunity to step outside my comfort zone of comedy and you know, making a segue into what can be considered, the world of dramatic acting, but doing it in a way to where my following can be a part of the journey of me eventually going over there.

This was a baby step, you know? This is a more dramatic role, but there's still some comedy undertone to it. Very personable, grounded, authentic, but just showing that I have the chops to do it.

So the movie after this one will then be one that can be, another level past this one. It can be a little more serious, but my fan base would've seen this one and said, "Okay. Wow, we know that he can do it.

We believe that he's going over here. Oh, I'm curious to see how he is in this one too." Daniel: So do you set 10-year goals, five-year goals?

Do 100%. Really? Kevin Hart: 100%. I think you have to with anything that you're doing because that's your, that's your reward. Seeing that you can say things and watch those things become your reality is what puts you in a position to just keep going.

Once you see, oh, wow, I said I was gonna do this and I did it, and now that I'm here, I'm not done. I'm going to set five new goals. Mm-hmm. And I can't wait to achieve these and have the same conversation with myself in years to come.

It's just always, it's playing a game with your own mental, I think, and that's why I love writing things down. That's why I love the vision board. That's why I love team meetings and conversation.

There's, there's just nothing bad that can come out of them. It's only an upside. No pun intended with the movie.

You know, I've been doing comedy and acting for years, but when I stepped on the set and I was with Bryan Cranston and Nicole Kidman, regardless of my level of success or my star, I was a sponge. I was willing to soak up as much information as possible. I was listening, I was watching, and pretty much taking away whatever I could from the moment of working with these two unbelievable people, you know?

This is an amazing actress and an amazing actor. These are both. They're at the top of their games. They're of the elite.

Mm-hmm. So the fact that I'm in that company, I wanna make sure that I put myself in the best position to be in the conversations that they're in in years to come. Daniel: The path of your career is a really interesting one because you actually hit it big pretty early. You were in a Judd Apatow, TV show, which I think people aspire to.

And then Hollywood just kinda stopped working for you and you went on the road and started doing comedy and working your way back up and becoming big. And then when you came back to Hollywood, totally different Kevin Hart at that point. Kevin Hart: Ah. 100%. I did the shows.

I worked with Judd, and while working, while working with Judd, I found that, you know, it's so, it's so amazing to create, but I was like, "This is. It's not enough. Like, I'm not gonna be able to take care of myself. I'm not gonna be able to feed myself."

So I made a decision to go and focus on stand-up comedy. I said, "I know this is here, but I can't just wait by the phone. I need to go put myself in a position where I can create, where I can be active."

So I went and did stand-up comedy. I said, "I wanna focus on my stand-up comedy." Over the course of, like, three and a half, four years, I built my fan base up.

My fan base was now selling out all shows. So now I don't have to do comedy clubs because now I can do little theaters. Now I've built all of this up by just being persistent and saying, "Idle time is a idle mind."

Daniel: So this whole time you're making these tours, is Hollywood calling you also? Are you starting to, and did you turn down work that would've brought you back? Kevin Hart: Well, it wasn't like I was turning down a crazy amount of work 'cause it wasn't coming in.

Daniel: All right. So you were able to stay focused. Kevin Hart: I was, I was not only focused, I was just determined to make you realize what I am. Right. 'Cause I know what I am.

Nobody else knows what you are but you. You're your own competition. And when I realized what I was, I was like, "There's no shot at me losing focus.

There's no shot at me not finishing the job at hand." By the time I'm done, Hollywood is going to go, "Whoa, that guy's out there moving tickets. Who is this new star?"

Keep in mind I've been around for years. Mm-hmm. But they don't know, and they don't have a real reason to. But now I'm gonna force your hand.

I'm gonna make you aware. That's the beauty of stand-up comedy. Daniel: And I've read something you've said before where you talk about not wanting to be work for hire, that along during this process you realized that you were the product and you wanted to own the product.

Mm-hmm. How did you come to that realization, and what has that meant in terms of how you guide your career? Kevin Hart: You know, if you need me, you need me. If you don't, you don't.

That's not, that's not good, you know? How am I gonna really support those around me? How do I position myself to be so much more than that?

How do I how do I learn? What, like, where am I supposed to figure it out at? I went out and I used some examples.

Will Packer was doing a bunch of movies, and he was producing them. He approached me to produce a movie that he wanted to do. He's like, "Kevin, this is something that's dear to my heart.

I wanna do it. I would love for you to be in it. You can star in it.

I think it'll be great for you." All right. Dope. I wanna do it. But then I watched him.

I watched how he put stuff together. And doing that, I was like, "Yo, I can do that." I can do what he's doing.

I already got the infrastructure, I already got the company set up. I got the office building. I could easily get the rest of the buildings.

I could easily get space 'cause I got money from stand-up. My money from stand-up can help me leverage and do the things that I wanna do. Once I figured out how to get Heartbeat Productions running and off the ground, things started to click so much easier.

Hmm. Because That was the turning Yeah. Starting your own company? Well, because now I'm producing for me.

Mm-hmm. Oh my God, this is huge. It clicked, and when it clicked, it kept clicking, 'cause now I know how to add on to it. Now I know how to get more deals.

Now I know how to not only develop, produce, I also know how to engage. Daniel: What are you like as a, as a manager? Are you a hands-on guy?

Do you build Hands-on. Really? Hands-on. Like, daily Hands-on. Monthly. You you're, you're following, you're looking at the spreadsheets.

You're seeing what's going Hands. Inside the business. On. You're hiring. Hands. Really?

On. Do you like doing all that? Kevin Hart: I like it because right now it's, it's my baby. Right. I'm watching it evolve because I'm putting the pieces to the puzzle in place.

I'm hiring the right people. I'm having the people that I hire feel comfortable enough to know that they're a part of something that's much bigger. Mm-hmm. Much bigger.

Daniel: We spent a lot of this week talking about the Mm-hmm. Controversy. You talk about, helping out young comedians. Mm-hmm. Guiding the way for them.

What lessons should they take out of what you've just been through? Kevin Hart: Take a lesson from what I've been through? Just pay attention. Hmm.

Pay attention, man. Just one man's misfortune is another man's fortune, you know? There's lesson learned in all of this for everyone, and it's just, it's, it's very easy for things to go away. It's hard to achieve them.

Right. It's very hard to get there. Yes. But it's easy for it to go away, and you're living in the time where because it's so easy, you have to just be careful. Just make sure that you're always handling yourself correctly, you know?

Not gonna be perfect. Nobody's perfect. Nobody's perfect, but within your imperfections come perfection. So give yourself time to grow and understand the state of the world today.

It's different. It's different. But also, be true to you. That's another thing that I would say, you know?

Be true to you. Don't, don't let other people dictate who you are and what you should be. I think we're all smart enough to know right from wrong, and we're all smart enough to fix whatever the wrong is to make it right.

In doing so, do it while staying true to you. Daniel: It's a hard line to walk, right? It's, it'You have to be true to yourself, but also think Kevin Hart: It's a very, it's a very thin line.

Hmm. Because you can easily, you can easily get off balance. Right. But as long as you're conscious and aware of it, you know, you'll, you'll be okay. That's what, that's. That's what I'll say.

You know? Just be aware, man. Be aware. But I will say that it only gets, it only gets tougher as you get bigger. Right. But there is an approach to still trying to be edgy.

Mm-hmm. You're, you're a comedian. If you're a comedian, you're supposed to be able to say the things that other people think but they won't say. Right. In you doing that, you now have to just make sure you're doing that, you're doing it correctly.

Make sure that there's a high level of professionalism, and if you are a comic that chooses to go down that insensitive road, just understand that there's going to be backlash for it and be prepared for that. If that's what you want and that's who you wanna be, then by all means, do it. I'm not here to change you.

Right. Do it. I'm not here to change at all, but just be smart in your approach to it.

And I would say that I think that's the dopest thing about my change is that I've done that, and that's why I decided just to be done with the situation because the change came in in the last 10 years that act as proof of somebody that got it, understood it, and adjusted and adapted to the times of today.

Daniel: You must get people that come to you all the time that are like, "Hey, I'm working in a fast food job," or "I'm working this job which I hate. I really wanna be a comedian," or "I wanna be an actor." What kind of advice do you tell them?

Kevin Hart: That's tough, man. That's tough. You say don't do it? No, you definitely don't say that.

I'm not a, I'm not a dream killer. Hmm. I just don't like talkers. So many people love to say what they're going to do.

So many people love to voice it just so they can hear themselves say it. Right. "Yeah, man, you know what I'm thinking about doing today? I'm probably gonna go and,

Hey, you know what, man? I'm, I just started this. Yeah, I'm probably tomorrow get up in the morning, go down and do some."

You just like to hear, you just like to hear yourself say it. Right. It's so hard for some people to follow through and actually put action behind the words. So my advice is to not be a talker because you can.

Be the person that actually puts action behind it, and when you know that you're that person, then start picking people apart for advice, and and direction, and what to do, what not to do. Because you know that you're gonna take it and you're gonna apply it. But when you don't know if you're even capable of taking information and going and using it, don't ask for it.

Mm-hmm. So my advice is to not be a talker, be a doer. Be a person that wants to put punctuations on sentences, not just keep running them on. Run-on sentences are the worst.

They just don't stop. You're like, "Where's your period?" You didn't, you didn't put a period on one sentence.

Finish something. You gotta finish something. All right. Thank Daniel: you man. Well, Kevin, thank you very much.

Thank you so much. It was terrific.