Chris Rock is no longer hosting

As Sarah wrote earlier today, Lance Oppenheim and Nathan Fielder’s You Can See Everything, the documentary about Elizabeth Holmes, bulldozed its way into the festival conversation by surprise, taking the wind a bit out of Venice and claiming the spotlight for Telluride.

Award season is taking shape now after several highly anticipated contenders screened at both festivals. Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine looks like it’s living up to months of hype and Primetime starring Robert Pattinson definitely delivered the chaos, but Andrew Scott’s performance in Elsinor has put him in the race for Oscar and Julianne Moore’s performance in Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut, co-starring Paul Giamatti is now considered in contention. I can’t wait to see The Debut, because I LOVED Jesse’s last film, A Real Pain, for which Kieran Culkin won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Jesse, it would seem, might be on a bit of a streak. The Debut will also be screened at TIFF and both Sarah and I will have more thoughts on the film over the next few days.

Speaking of TIFF, while Venice and Telluride secured several splashy titles that will most likely be in the Oscar race, one of the buzziest films heading into the kickoff in Toronto later this week is Chris Rock’s Misty Green which will world premiere on Saturday night. Chris has had success in Toronto before with both Good Hair and Top Five (an underrated comedy) and he’s coming into TIFF with some hype. There are some Oscar experts who are already saying that the star of the film, Rosalind Eleazar, could be in the best actress race. As I wrote last week, Rosalind is not famous, not yet. Those of us who watch Slow Horses know her, of course, but with Misty Green, she’s about to take it to a whole other level. And that’s an important point right now as Chris moves into the promotional push for his film. It’s not just that he wrote and directed and of course wants it to succeed, it’s that its success does not exist without Rosalind, which is why his approach in promoting the film is at once to advance his own work but also support hers, and protect hers… perhaps from his own notoriety. That’s what jumped out at me when I was reading his new Variety cover story.

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As noted in the piece, he’s still making jokes, but I wonder if this is a kinder, gentler Chris Rock. Some of that has to do with his non-verbal learning disorder diagnosis in 2020 after which he says he now as a “level of concentration and empathy that I just did not have back then”. But it’s also good strategy. Because, as we know, Chris is no stranger to controversy – both in his work as a comedian and also his work as a host. Remember that year when we talked about The Slap for months?

He’s asked about The Slap in this interview. And his answer is excellent – because he is not making it about himself:

“You know, to answer your question a little bit, I wish nothing would have happened. And also, I don’t want to say anything that takes any attention away from Rosalind and how good she is in this movie. It’s a crazy world. We walk by homeless people. There’s all sorts of shit going on right now. Me having a bad day is not the biggest — it’s not that important.”

It’s a good answer because it’s transparent. Anything he would say WOULD take away from the film and from Rosalind. And she deserves better. At one point in the interview he compares her performance in Misty Green to Wesley Snipes in New Jack City. And this isn’t just a vanity response either since he’s the director of her performance because he also says during the interview that 80% of directing is casting. It’s an indication that he will spend the next several weeks on this press tour making sure that all the focus is on her, on what she poured into this character. 

And if it eventually ends up in a nomination or nominations, great, that’s when he’ll finally return to the Oscars. But not as a host. You will note, however, that his answer when asked about whether he’ll host again is also smart and also not about himself:

“When people answer those questions, they’re being disrespectful to the people that got the gig. They have great hosts. Conan O’Brien is amazing. Nikki Glaser is amazing on the Golden Globes. I’m not going to say never, but my time might have passed, honestly.”

So this is what it looks like when Chris Rock is campaigning. Is Misty Green a longshot? Probably. But are they doing the right things to generate and then maintain momentum? So far, yes. There are a lot of people here in Toronto who think that Misty Green will play very well at this festival. And it’ll be interesting to see how Chris Rock progresses along an award season path, if indeed there’s a path that opens up for him and the film. 

Here's Chris in New York last week.