Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish are easily two of the hottest comedians on the planet right now.
Over the last few years Hart’s Hollywood status has grown exponentially thanks to his roles in “Think Like A Man,” “Ride Along,” “The Wedding Ringer,” “Get Hard,” “Central Intelligence,” “The Secret Life Of Pets” and “Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle.”
In comparison, it feels as though we are just at the beginning of Tiffany Haddish’s cinematic ascent, as she was the stand out star of last year’s “Girls Trip.”
Since then she has been cast as the lead in TBS’s “The Last O.G.” opposite Tracy Morgan, signed a first-look deal with HBO, been cast in “The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part” and “The Secret Life Of Pets 2,” and has become much sought after by Paul Thomas Anderson for a future project.
Later this year, though, we will get to see Haddish on the big-screen again opposite her old friend Hart in “Night School,” in which she plays the teacher to his student. Last month I had the chance to speak to Will Packer, who is producing the comedy, and he broke down what Hart and Haddish’s dynamic will be like in the film.
“You know what’s interesting, when you think about Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish, you think of two of the brightest comedy stars of this generation. So the pairing of them, I have seen the movie, and it delivers on the promise of what that could be. “
“Tiffany Haddish is the night school teacher, Kevin Hart is the night school student trying to get his GED, and they bump heads. It is fun.”
“Tiffany does what she does so well, being carefree and shooting from the hip and being no-holds barred straight shooting character. And it is Kevin Hart, who at this point is a comedy pro and a movie star, so he brings a level of nuance to the character. I know that audiences are going to find the combination of them delightful.”
Packer credited director Malcolm D. Lee (“Girls Trip,” “The Best Man”) with balancing out their performances, insisting that he has done a superb job of modulating proceedings.
“You have to modulate it. Because you can’t have both of them going at 10 the whole time. Because then you just become numb to it.”
“I will say that Malcolm Lee, the director of that project, does a very good job in his even-handedness of the characters and how he directs them.”
We’ll get to see how he has done just that when "Night School" is released on September 28.
