(Almost) Everybody Loves Chris Rock

The comedian extraordinaire on "Good Hair," going natural and getting sued.

Is there really not a less toxic way for ladies to get their hair straightened than that villainous cream relaxer?

You would think. The other way would be just going natural. I have no problem with natural. But even to say you have no problem with it is to say that there’s something wrong with it. I actually like natural, and probably half the girls I’ve dated had natural hair.

But did you ever get to touch their hair?

Yeah, the ones with natural hair. The other ones were just scared. You know, you’re just so happy you’re having sex, you don’t want to interrupt it at all. [laughs]

All the barbershop bullshitting might be my favorite scenes. Living in Brooklyn, where you grew up, I’m wondering if you think barbershop culture has been threatened by gentrification?

Nah, I don’t think so at all. There’s still not a lot of integration in barbershops. I know Louis C.K. only goes to black barbershops to get his hair cut. [laughs] He says it’s just a better time, that no one talks in a white barbershop. I was like, really? He said, “Not a word. Black barbershops are great! I know what’s going on, I’m up on my sports.” I don’t think [gentrification] is hurting it at all. I think it’s bringing us together.

You’ve wanted to do a project on hair for years.

I always thought the Bronner Bros. show, in particular, could be a movie. But I was in no position to get a movie made then, and I’m barely in one now.

After “Head of State” and “I Think I Love My Wife,” why not direct this one?

I trust Jeff. We worked together on ["The Chris Rock Show"]. You know, it’s like a co-anything. He’s throwing me jokes constantly, and I’ll tell him he needs to shoot that. When you’re doing movies, because the cost is so high, sometimes you can’t hire all your friends. Then you’re working with strangers, so you have to protect yourself by directing on some occasions.

“Good Hair” is so slickly edited that I’m guessing some material had to be cut out entirely.

A funny thing that didn’t make it into the film was on Jheri curls. It wasn’t always going to be [just] women’s hair, it was going to be black people and their hair, but we found out that nobody cares about men’s hair. We had Martin Luther King’s barber, a lot of civil rights stuff — we just cut all that out. There was a section about particular actresses who do shampoo commercials with weaves, which is kind of false advertising: “You can have hair like this!” Wait a minute, that’s not your hair — that’s Indian hair! [laughs] It was like outing people for their hair. We didn’t want that to overshadow the movie.

There is one male hairstyle that would’ve been fitting for the film: the “Jewfro.”

Will Ferrell likes to sport it from time to time. [Adam] Sandler has too, and I guess when my kids met him, he must’ve had the ‘fro. They saw Sandler someplace else, like in a movie or something, and I go: “Did you see Uncle Adam?” They said, “That’s not Uncle Adam. Uncle Adam’s black.” My kids think Sandler is black. [laughs]

Radar just broke the story that you’re at the center of a $5 million lawsuit from Regina Kimbell, who claims you stole the idea for this movie from her 2005 doc “My Nappy Roots.” Can you comment on that?

It’s weird because I called her to see the movie, and told her I was doing a movie, so it’s not like anybody was hiding it. It’s like, “I’m thinking about doing a movie on hair.” It was really to watch it to make sure I wasn’t going to make that movie. The only similarity is her movie goes to India and mine goes to India, but I don’t even know if she went to India. I think she got footage. That’s about it.

Her movie is about [hair care entrepreneur Madam] C.J. Walker, histories of hair, men, women… She’ll probably be able to sell it now because of “Good Hair,” but it’s not humorous at all. [laughs] If you did two documentaries on George Washington, there’d be some similarities, but they’re not the same documentary. We’ll see what happens. I guess I’ll talk to my lawyers later today.

What’s the worst haircut you’ve ever had?

I had a long Jheri curl with, like, a mullet. I looked like I was in that ['80s R&B] group Ready for the World. I would spray it. I was in my teens, 16 or 17. Yeah, it was weird. I mean, Michael Jackson, “Thriller” was big, whatever.

“Good Hair” opens in limited release on October 9th.

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