Throughout production of Central Intelligence, Kevin Hart and Dwayne Johnson engaged in a hilarious barrage of on-set social media photos and videos, clearly enjoying their partnership both on-screen and off.
With a long list of buddy comedies behind him, Hart has an idea why some teams work and others don't. "I think it's a little bit of special Kev sauce," he laughs. "Nah, it's all about the chemistry. Without the chemistry you can't expect to see results. I honestly have to say that Dwayne was above and beyond a pleasure to work with. He brought chemistry and an amazing work ethic."
To which Johnson interjects, "Yeah. And my good looks!"
Hart adds that despite his history of action roles, Johnson is a natural at playing comedy. "You can't teach funny. You either have it, or you don't," he says. "And what DJ has is that 'I don't give a sh-t' attitude. You have to have a fearless attitude to go in and take comedy risks. It's about confidence. My job was to get him to an area where he could not only be funny, but be safe. I had to have his back."
Johnson felt the same about the project. "It had been a while since I had done a comedy," he says. "And I was just waiting for the right opportunity, to hopefully find a script that had some action elements in it. The Bob role wasn't necessarily for me, but the idea was if I was going to go back into the genre of action-comedy, it had to be different, with me playing a character I'd never played before."
Indeed, the film plays with casting expectations, stripping Johnson of his confidence while making Hart the straight man. "When we meet my character, he's incredibly shy," Johnson explains. "Bullied unmercifully, he has a lot of quirks and idiosyncrasies. And, like a lot of things in life, when it's time to pay the piper and face your greatest fears, sometimes it goes well and sometimes it doesn't."
And Hart says that making this film was something special. "It's such a good feeling to know we're coming to work and you're smiling and having a good time," he says. "There were no fights, no attitudes, nobody was yelling or screaming. There wasn't a bad day when someone was left feeling uncomfortable. To me, you chalk this up in the books as a good one."
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