‘I CAN ONLY MOVE FORWARD’ Kevin Hart talks about the tough road to success
The hit comedian and star of ‘Night School’ opens up about his tough road to success – and how he and his wife made it through a cheating scandal
Kevin Hart has built one of Hollywood’s most lucrative comedy careers out of being self-deprecating – he mocks his 1.63m stature and jokes about his credit cards not working. But in reality he’s pretty proud of himself. Asked about almost any chapter of his life, he calls it “amazing”. His childhood, for example: “My personality was unbelievable. I had a heart of gold, loved to laugh and make people laugh. Little Kevin was amazing!” High school? “I was the class clown. It was great.”
Still, his attitude, whether he’s reflecting on his tough upbringing in Philadelphia or talking about weathering a cheating scandal, isn’t blind optimism but a mindset. At 39, the father of three admits he’s seen some hard times, but he refuses to let them bring him down. “I have a positive outlook on life regardless,” he says. “I can only move forward.” That attitude is certainly paying off. After Hart’s breakout role in 2012’s Think Like a Man, his career kicked into high gear.
In the six years since, he’s starred in 16 movies (including Ride Along and Jumanji), enjoyed wildly successful stand-up tours and released a bestselling memoir, 2017’s I Can’t Make This Up. He also faced his first public scandal when, in 2017, a friend allegedly tried to extort him over a video of him cheating. Hart took to social media to apologise to his then-pregnant wife, Eniko, 34, for his “bad error in judgment”. Their now two-year marriage survived, and they welcomed a son, Kenzo, in November 2017. Hart is currently starring in the new comedy Night School alongside real-life pal Tiffany Haddish. He’s also producing the movie. “I’m putting on a different hat for the first time,” he says.
Hart thanks his mother for his drive. “My will and want to succeed is from my mum,” he says of Nancy, who died of cancer in 2007. Hart’s father, Henry Witherspoon, missed out on much of his childhood because of a cocaine addiction and stints in jail. After dropping out of college, Hart moved to New York to pursue stand-up comedy. “It’s the toughest profession within entertainment,” he says. Two decades later, he can say it was all worth it. “I’m now in a position where I’m blessed and I can provide,” says the star, who’s also dad to Heaven, 13, and Hendrix, 10, from his first marriage, to Torrei Hart (they divorced in 2011). These days Hart credits wife Eniko – a model he met in 2009 after splitting from Torrei – for his success. “Our marriage has been put to the test, the most difficult test ever,” says Hart.
“Sometimes those tests come from stupidity, but it’s how you handle it and decide to move forward from it. The money, the movies, it’s great, but the level that I’ve reached from a happiness standpoint, that woman is 100 per cent responsible for it. I applaud her for being my backbone.”