Chris Rock and Nicole Kidman shared a virtual conversation for Variety‘s “Actors on Actors” series, discussing their recent involvement in a pair of acclaimed TV projects: Rock’s turn as a Kansas City mob boss in the fourth season of “Fargo” and Kidman’s performance in HBO’s “The Undoing”.
During their chat, they discuss her upcoming portrayal of Lucille Ball, which led Rock to marvel at Ball owning her own production company and being a powerful figure in male-dominated Hollywood.
“Let’s not downplay the fact how hard it must’ve been to be a woman at that time going through, you know, just like, ‘I’m the boss. Not him. I’m the boss,'” Rock says.
“It is still tricky,” Kidman admits.
“It is still,” Rock confirms. “I’ve fired people because they couldn’t listen to a woman. I was like, ‘How come he’s not doing …?’ And then I realize, ‘Oh.'”
Kidman asks, “And so why can you listen to a woman?”
According to Rock, when he launched his comedy career, some of his biggest mentors were female comics.
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“When I was starting out as a comedian, you know, Joy Behar and Susie Essman took me under their wing. I just always was around these powerful women. I mean, even in comedy, the clubs were run by women,” Rock divulged.
“God, that doesn’t get talked about that much,” said Kidman. “That’s amazing.”
