Kevin Hart wants you take him seriously in ‘Die Hart’ [Pulse Interview]

While the real-life persona loves this life, his alter ego in Prime Video’s ‘Die Hart‘ is sick of comedy. He is tired of being the funny guy who makes people laugh and wants to be the action star fans pay to see behind the wheel in car chases, kissing the femme fatale, or climbing skyscrapers.

In this movie, Hart plays a fictional, exaggerated version of himself who embarks on a journey to become an action star. His dream takes him to an action hero school, run by Ron Wilcox, played by John Travolta.

Sharing the inspiration for the movie, Hart tells me, “It was a funny concept that I thought of. I thought it would be very funny to play a version of myself that wants to be an action star and because I want to do it at the highest level. I’m willing to go to school. In going to school, I find out that the school isn’t a school at all. It’s a corrupt facility with a corrupt individual, and I was like, “Oh man, it would be dope to do the fake movie within the movie while playing myself.’ It was all a crazy concept that we narrowed down to something that was doable and then we executed.”

Like Nicolas Cage in ‘The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent’, Hart plays a version of himself, something he says can not be done by a lot of actors.

On playing himself and handling the ‘movie in a movie’ concept, the comedian says, “When you are playing in the world of parody or this genre that I like to call the genre of the constant Winks. We are constantly winking at an idea. It’s Kevin Hart playing Kevin Hart while doing things that Kevin Hart wouldn’t do or would do. There’s a lot of places that you can go from there and honestly, the only way is up you can only go up from this point.”

In the action-hero school, Hart is joined by Nathalie Emmanuel of ‘Game of Thrones’ and Josh Hartnett. Here, the sidekick-turned-upcoming superstar takes on an interesting squirrel as well as his doubts and fears.

With one minute left on the clock, the comedian tells me what he hopes to achieve with this new movie that challenges viewers to widen their expectations of themselves.

In his words, “I think the biggest takeaway is to be able to laugh at yourself. Nobody’s perfect. Nobody knows it all. So, sometimes you shouldn’t look past your norm or your now, you should embrace it because it’s only helping to shape you into an overall better individual.”

This movie is a reimagining of the ‘Die Hart’ series, which was originally released as a ten-episode Quibi show in 2020. It will be followed by two sequels from Hart’s global media company, Hartbeat.

‘Die Hart’ is currently streaming on Prime Video.