Kevin Hart may know a thing or two about running his own tequila brand and training pet eagles, but the comedian and actor is still a novice when it comes to hot sauces. This week, Hart reprised his seat at the “Hot Ones” table to try his luck with a fresh platter of extra hot chicken wings and celebrate the talk show’s 10th anniversary.
“This is a good time for me to check the exits just so I know…If I do need to go, understand that I’m not playing,” Hart warned host Sean Evans before trying the first sauce on the lineup.
Hart’s brand-new adult animated series, “Lil Kev,” inspired by his childhood in North Philadelphia, premiered March 6 on BET+. The half-hour series is set in 1993 North Philadelphia and follows 12-year-old Hart. Hart himself serves as an executive producer and voices the show’s eponymous tween character.
What makes the character of Lil Kev so special is his optimistic spirit, which Hart said is a mindset he’s always had.
“It’s a high level of innocence attached to it, right,” he told Evans. “I’ve always believed in the idea and concept that everything is going to be OK and everything works itself out and what’s bad today doesn’t have to be bad tomorrow.”
Hart continued: “Having the opportunity to showcase the hood in a manner that has never been, showing the positive side of it…it’s a new wave in storytelling. I think doing it through, of course, adult animation was a creative idea that allowed me some real bandwidth of raw and edgy.”
In addition to “Lil Kev,” Hart’s documentary “Number One on the Call Sheet,” which he produced alongside Jamie Foxx, is set to premiere March 28 on Apple TV+. The two-part showcase spotlights the journeys, challenges and triumphs of Hollywood’s most acclaimed Black men and women.
When asked if there’s a specific actor who took him under their wing when he first started landing major on-screen roles, Hart credited “more comedians than actors.”
“[B]ecause the acting world, it was a long road to get to a place of real success,” he said. As for specifics, Hart named legends like Bill Burr, Patrice O’Neal, Colin Quinn and Tracy Morgan.
Elsewhere in his conversation with Evans, Hart opened up about the one incident that forever deterred him from doing his own stunts. It happened on the set of the 2014 action comedy film “Ride Along,” which stars both Hart and Ice Cube.
“While doing a stunt, Ice Cube punched one of the stuntmen in the face really hard, for real by accident. And the stuntman kind of knocked out for a second. And I was like, ‘Oh that can happen?’” Hart said.
“And Cube, I remember him hugging the stunt guy…From that day on, I stopped with the idea of wanting to do stunts so much. The energy that I used to have, like younger me, was like, ‘Throw me on the f**king table! Just do it in one take so [we] get the real reaction.’ But now I’m 45. I don’t event want to run.”
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Hart even offered a special shoutout to stunt performers, saying, “Those guys don’t get enough credit. There should be a Stunt Awards. They really don’t get enough love.”
Towards the end of his interview, Hart made a case for why his tequila brand, Gran Coramino, is significantly better than his longtime friend Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s brand, Teremana Tequila.
“Look, this is a different type of taste," he said. "Dwayne is a big strong guy, almost like a monster when you really think about it. Me? I’m just a nice, small, charismatic, smooth little man. I’ll say, you know, it’s all about what you’re really in the mood for.”
Hart ultimately conquered the infamous “Wings of Death,” though it wasn’t an easy feat for him the second time around.
Watch the full interview below, via YouTube:
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