Chris Rock watched a lot of Uncut Gems while he was writing Misty Green. He sometimes described the movie he was working on as a “female Uncut Gems,” borrowing its pace and the pressure of a deadline.
Asked at the Toronto International Film Festival whether Adam Sandler’s dramatic career made the longtime friends competitive, Rock dismissed the idea. “He’s so far ahead,” he said, according to Entertainment Weekly.
He also singled out Sandler’s performance in Punch-Drunk Love. Rock said he wanted to do similar work and admired the directors his friend had worked with.
Misty Green stars Slow Horses actress Rosalind Eleazar as a former Hollywood star who can no longer get hired. Rock wrote and directed the film, his first feature behind the camera since Top Five in 2014, and also has a role in it.
Rock Says He ‘Takes Notes From the Sandman’
“I just take notes from the Sandman,” Rock said while discussing Sandler’s work with filmmakers including Paul Thomas Anderson and brothers Josh and Benny Safdie.
“It’s weird how few movies have money in them,” Rock said at TIFF. “Like, on a regular level.” He pointed to all the films about bank robberies, when paying the rent could give a character something urgent to worry about.
Misty is an Emmy winner with little left in her bank account. She has been told to leave the apartment where she is staying, and a countdown tracks how long she has to find another home. She needs an acting job that will also pay for the care of her brother Jordan, played by Daniel Kaluuya.
Eleazar had her own difficulties getting in front of Rock. For a Zoom callback, she rented a studio and had her hair and makeup done. Then music started up next door, trains went past and the Wi-Fi gave her trouble. Rock thought her frustration helped the audition, she told the Associated Press.
She eventually bought herself a ticket to Los Angeles so they could meet in person. “I knew I was going to do whatever I could to get it,” she said. The part became her first lead in a film.
Adam Driver Kept Asking Rock What He Was Working On
For years after Top Five, Rock kept getting calls from Adam Driver. Driver liked the movie and would check in every six to eight months to ask about another project, Rock told Variety. Rock joked that he must have been on a long list of directors Driver worked through until he reached the R’s. This time, he had something to offer him.
Driver and Rock play former colleagues of Misty’s. Anna Kendrick plays her friend, while Topher Grace is her agent, trying to find work for an actress whose reputation makes that difficult.
Rock said he feels better equipped to direct this kind of movie now. He was diagnosed with nonverbal learning disorder in 2020 and credited the therapy that followed with helping him: “I have a level of concentration and empathy that I just did not have back then.”
Rock and Sandler Became Friends Before ‘Saturday Night Live’
Rock recalled first seeing Sandler at New York’s Comic Strip Live in a 2021 Esquire interview. He had been out of town for a week. When he returned, Sandler had a weekend spot at the club, the sort of booking other comics could wait years for.
“So I’m supposed to hate him,” Rock said. “I watch his act and he’s so funny.” They got talking after the set, and Rock later spent time at Sandler’s NYU dorm. By their Saturday Night Live years in the early 1990s, they were sharing an office with Chris Farley and David Spade. “All you remember are the friendships,” Rock told Variety.
Rock appeared with Sandler in The Longest Yard, both Grown Ups movies and Netflix’s The Week Of, while Sandler made a surprise appearance during Rock’s December 2024 return as an SNL host.
Misty Green premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, with A24 scheduled to release the film theatrically on October 9.