Michael Ealy Talks About His Experience Working With Chris Rock: ”I Wanted To Punch Him in The F—— Face”

Michael Ealy sat down with the Chicago Tribune to promote his new movie “The Intruder, while there the actor shared a story about the time he worked with Chris Rock on the movie “Bad Company.” ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

It seems the actors didn’t get along and Ealy didn’t hold back when he discussed how awful the experience was. The actor called it his “worst moment” saying:

“The movie was shooting in New York and Chris Rock played a street hustler — like, he’s that guy who’s doing three-card monte in the park — and I played one of his best friends. I’m a young actor, and I’m thrilled because this is my first movie. And it’s a big budget movie. And I’m going to do a scene with Anthony Hopkins! Kerry Washington was just starting out too, and she played Chris’ love interest. I guess Kerry and I were the local hires.”

Michael claimed that everything was going well, but Chris was surprisingly cold and indifferent to him. At the end of filming, Ealy recalls being called back to reshoot some scenes, one of them being the wedding scene with Rock and Kerry Washington.

“So we’re about to shoot this scene, I’m in my tux, I come on set, and Chris and Kerry are standing there, and Joel is telling me where to stand. And right before he says action, Chris looks over at me and he says: ‘Oh (pause). Still in the business, huh?’”

Michael described Rock’s comment as a “Mike Tyson left hook.”

“Some people don’t get it when I tell this story, but to say that to me was beyond disrespectful — to the point where Kerry was like (laughs), ‘Chris, no.’ I still love Kerry to this day because she was like, ‘What’s wrong with you? That was just wrong.’”

The star admits that it was tough to get through the scene after that exchange with Rock and that he ultimately cried about it later as the comedian touched a very sensitive nerve for the actor.

“I just stayed professional and did my best, but I was stuck there having to look like I’m happy to be at my friend’s wedding when really at this point, I wanted to punch him in the f—— face. The crying came later. In the moment I wanted to punch him in the face.”

But Ealy did reveal that years later Rock approached him and apologized for his bad company and the two are cool now.