As the 2016 Oscars quickly approach, all eyes are on comedian Chris Rock, who is set to headline one of the most controversial Oscar telecasts in years, amid ongoing outrage over the nominees’ lack of diversity.
In a recent interview with Vanity Fair (conducted before the Oscar nominees release), the Top Five actor got candid about a wide range of topics, including President Obama and being Black in America.
When asked which historical figure he identifies with most, Rock said, “Mrs. Ray Rice – it’s not the punch in the face that eats your soul; it’s having to defend the person that punched you in the face that eats.” He added in the magazine’s popular Proust Questionnaire, “Oddly enough, this is what it feels like to be a black man in America.”
All jokes aside, the 50-year-old didn’t hold back when it came to detailing his pet peeves: “I hate rich people that feel a need to tell you how hard they had it (‘We had the smallest pool on the block’). And I hate poor people that feel a need to puff up their bios so they can better fit in with the rich – you meet a lot of Talented Mr. Ripleys in showbiz.”
However, when it comes to Rock’s real-life heroes, he lists his parents, who despite all odds, raised seven children in a rough Brooklyn neighborhood. “Nobody in jail, nobody in rehab, not one kid out of wedlock,” he said. Adding that now as a parent himself, he enjoys picking up his daughters from school everyday.
“I had such a horrible school experience (bussed, one of the only black kids, called ‘n—–‘ every day, bullied, etc.) that picking my kids up from their mostly white school, where they’re having such a great time … it’s almost like I’m picking them up from another planet, and I am,” he said.
