Chris Rock fulfills ‘big dream’ with ‘Misty Green’

There is a method to his madness.

“For me, anything goes when I pick up that mic,” Chris Rock says. “I’m not trying to hurt people. I look at myself as a reporter. If you report on anything that has to do with culture, then why can’t I make a joke about it?”

“I’m just doing my job,” the 61-year-old funnyman says.

These days his job is multifold. He just brought his new movie, “Misty Green,” to the Toronto International Film Festival for its world premiere. Rock did triple duty on this one: writing, directing and starring.

“It’s a dream I had after meeting Spike Lee,” he says. “A big dream.”

“Misty Green” is a biting satire about a Black actress trying to jump-start her stalled Hollywood career while dealing with personal problems. It stars Rosalind Eleazar, Adam Driver, Daniel Kaluuya, Anna Kendrick and Topher Grace.

Rock has enjoyed an almost 40-year career in show business. It began on “Saturday Night Live” in the early 1990s, then he pivoted to stand-up, including his classic 1996 special, “Bring the Pain.” Films followed, including the hit franchise “Grown-Ups” and his previous directorial efforts, “I Think I Love My Wife” and “Top Five.”

Rock, who splits his time between homes in New Jersey and California, shared his good life advice:

Get messy

“Misty Green” is a passion project for Rock. The plot revolves around Misty, a once-promising actress fighting for a second act after her career stalls. She also grapples with personal demons and a troubled family life. “I love a messy woman,” Rock says. “I like to make things I haven’t seen. I haven’t seen this one. I haven’t seen this story with a Black woman. I wanted to see it — so I wrote it.”

Winning strategy

Rock’s work has brought home four Emmys and three Grammys. But he says he is more focused now on winning over audiences than awards. “I’m just in a different place of life,” he says. “I realize there’s more work behind me than in front of me, so I’m just getting it in, man. You might see a tap dance musical from me next!”

Find your inspiration

As much as Rock loves acting, he is thrilled about stepping behind the camera. The inspiration goes way back, he says. “Early in my stand-up career, I met Eddie Murphy at a club, and I was basically part of the entourage,” Rock says. “One night, we went to see Spike Lee’s film ‘She’s Gotta Have It.’ Spike was standing outside of the theater selling shirts and talking to Eddie. I was like the kid in ‘A Bronx Tale.’ I got to hang around the gangsters and watch how they worked. He wrote the movie. He directed the movie. This guy looked like me. He was wearing sneakers. I was like, ‘Note to self: Maybe I can do something like that.’”

It’s all music

Rock also counted Prince as a mentor. “We would sit and break down jokes as if they were songs,” he says. “A good joke has a chorus you come back to. It has a verse, and sometimes it even has a bridge. We’re all writing music. We just write it in a different way. Spike Lee is music on film. Maya Angelou is music in a book.”

Remember me?

Always smaller than the other kids growing up in Brooklyn, Rock didn’t have an easy childhood. He says he was bullied in school, but life has a funny way of sorting out old injustices. “I was doing a movie several years ago, and one of my bullies was working security on the movie,” he says. “This was a guy who picked me up and turned me upside down and shook money out of my pockets as a kid,” he says. The bully was mortified to see him, but Rock says he took the high road: “‘Hope you’re doing well. Take care.’”