Chris Rock said that his problem with “quote, unquote, wokeness” is that it leads to a world that is, in his opinion, less forgiving than it needs to be.
The comedian and “Misty Green” filmmaker stopped by the New York Times’ “The Interview” series this weekend and said that while advocating for marginalized communities is great, it needs to come with forgiveness, a huge theme in his new film starring Rosalind Eleazar.
When asked by host David Marchese about the throughline forgiveness has in the film, Rock said that “you don’t really realize if you love somebody until you have to forgive them,” adding that somebody letting you down or betraying you, but still choosing to be around them, is what true love is. “I have a friend that’s going to be nameless that might have gotten canceled,” Rock said. “Another friend of mine was like, ‘How can you be friends with that person?’ I was like, ‘If you’re only friends with your friends when they’re good, they’re not your friends.’ If you’ve got a bunch of people that are only going to be there when you’re good, you have no friends. That doesn’t mean condoning abusive behavior; you can reprimand your friends. That’s also part of friendship.”
When pressed by Marchese, who said that everyone has to have a line at some point, the comedian held his ground.
“I’m a Christian, and God forgives,” he said. “The problem with quote, unquote, wokeness — and don’t get me wrong, it is great that marginalized people have a voice; it is great to advocate for anybody that feels marginalized — but the problem is we’re in the Old Testament right now, and the Old Testament has no forgiveness. The Old Testament didn’t work, so they had to write a remix called the New Testament.”
Marchese also pressed Rock on the so-called “Woke 1.0” era, referring to the period immediately following George Floyd’s murder in 2020. He asked Rock whether he viewed that period simply as “crazy” or whether there was anything redeeming about it.
Rock said he believed there was plenty worth preserving in the movement’s original impulse, particularly its focus on giving marginalized people a voice. But, he argued, problems arise when those ideas become institutionalized.
“It’s great to help those that need help. We need more of that. The problem is when you institutionalize it,” Rock said.
He then offered a characteristically irreverent analogy to explain what he sees as the danger of turning a movement into an institution. “My half a joke: The Salem witch hunts — I’m sure the first three witches they caught were actually witches,” he said. “But then you open up a witch office, and now you gotta start lying because you got overhead. You gotta justify the witch hunters’ pensions and [expletive].”
Despite his criticism, Rock said he ultimately believes the period had a positive impact, particularly in amplifying voices that might otherwise have gone unheard.
“I’m glad that all of this stuff happened, it needed to happen, and because it happened, maybe I’ve heard some voices that I probably wouldn’t have heard otherwise,” he said.
Rock wrote and directed “Misty Green” which centers on a a fading actress attempting to make a comeback in unforgiving Hollywood.
You can watch Rock’s full NYT interview in the video above.
“Misty Green” hits select theaters Oct. 9.
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