Entertainment

A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Filming of ‘Get Hard’

Published

11 years ago

March 31, 2015

Oakland Post

Kevin Hart in “Get Hard”

By Dwight Brown
NNPA Film Critic

NEW ORLEANS (NNPA) – The comedy Get Hard, scheduled for release March 27, co-stars Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart. The shoot took place in New Orleans. A visit to the film’s production studios in there found Ferrell and Hart deep in their craft of making comedy mountains out of molehills.

The plot centers on a millionaire hedge fund manager James (Will Ferrell) who has been convicted of a crime and is being sent to prison. Scared to death, he looks for someone, his car detail guy Darnell (Kevin Hart), to show him the ropes. To his utter misjudgment, James pays his teacher for a crash course not knowing that his would-be mentor has never spent a day in prison and is as middle class as the Brady Bunch.

In real life, the two actors have had two different experiences dealing with the law. Hart bluntly says, with not a hint of embarrassment, and not using it as a badge of street cred, “I’ve been to jail. I was in jail three times: DUI, parking tickets…” On the other hand Farrell has not been behind bars. After a run-in with campus police during college, he has been a model citizen: “I was scared straight.”

On location in New Orleans, during a scene in which Darnell prepares James to withstand a prison riot, Hart and Farrell ham it up, polishing shtick and punching up lines. As the actors improvise, director Etan Cohen gives them free reign.

Shooting day 39 of a 44-day shoot Darnell (Hart) tries to teach James (Ferrell) how to survive in prison during a riot. Wearing what looks like a fireman’s uniform, with a megaphone in his mouth, Darnell, cues the extras who will stage a prison riot. He bellows, “We are about to simulate a prison riot. … The key to surviving is to not panic…” James, “Do I get body armor?” Darnell, “No! We do not have that kind of time!” James turns pallid; his facial expressions say very loudly, “I’m scared to death.” Darnell warns: “Do not freak out!”

When the camera stops for a break, Farrell and Hart brainstorm about how they can pump up the scene. The two comic actors mine the material and the moment like pros.

Always looking for a laugh, and setting the crew at ease, Hart makes a joke, a

Derogatory – but funny – remark about the lighting. Offstage, a camerawoman deadpans: “Rule number one: Never insult the one who lights your face!” The whole set erupts in laughter.

When producer Chris Henchy is asked how you manage comedic talents, he has a simple answer: “You don’t. You let them run free. Let them do what they do best.”

Sitting offset with earphones and a monitor and watching the making of the prison riot scene with Hart and Farrell in full comic spasm, you see how a film breaks down. You see the mechanics of building a movie, scene-by-scene, take-by-take, brick-by-brick.

Hart has his own cadence, a rhythm to his speech pattern that is distinctly his. He will be known for years for his antics and high, heavily caffeinated-like persona. But his vocal pattern is classic, too.

The title Get Hard, with its funny connotation, was a calculated marketing/creative strategy. Farrell and his producing partner Chris Henchy take the credit. They and the writers Jay Martel and Ian Roberts and director/co-writer Etan Cohen created the storyline for the comedy with echoes of Trading Places and 48 Hours, humorous movies that defied racial stereotypes.

The film shot for three days in the 9th Ward, where Hurricane Katrina did most of its damage on the six-feet below sea level neighborhood. In this heavily African American district, the locals, who turned out to watch the filming, knew Hart and rapper TI, who plays Hart’s brother. But Ferrell had his fans, too. Hart: “They didn’t call him Will, they called him ‘Ricky Bobby,’” the character Ferrell played in the popular comedy Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby has left an indelible impression on the American psyche.

Will Ferrell patterned his hedge fund character on the stiffest White person you are ever going to meet. “Perfect posture,” says Ferrell. “I patterned him on a snobby Harvard guy.” Hart has his character all figured out, too. “Darnell is basically a good guy but he‘s the kind of guy that always loses. He wants to do the right thing. This is the one chance that he can get a do-over,” he says.

Hart swears he stays focused and doesn’t burn the midnight oil when he’s filming. When asked if they have favorite places to eat out in NOLA, Hart deadpans, “Brothers Chicken, you can get it at a gas station. I don’t want to see it being cooked, but I’ll eat it.” Ferrell, being true to his character, recommends Willy Mae’s Scotch House (2401 St Ann St. New Orleans), a lauded family-owned spot since 1957, famous for fried chicken and other soul food in a humble setting; and the highbrow Le Petite Grocery (4238 Magazine St.), where the menu offerings run from Turtle Bolognese to Gulf Shrimp & Grits.

Hart and Ferrell have never worked together before. Ferrell is astounded that Hart is so media savvy. “He sends something out in the morning and he has 300,000 likes by the afternoon,” says Ferrell. “And, he reads everyone’s comment.”

Hart wades into ironic humor when talking about the film’s targeted demographics. “Will’s Black fans will come. My White fans will come,” he says laughing. “This is a universal movie. Everyone the world over should see the film. Let’s make a comedy that everyone wants to see.”

Audiences will decide on March 27. And after seeing the film they may just be tempted to take a trip down to NOLA to see where Hart and Farrell filmed the movie and visit their favorite restaurants.

Visit NNPA Film Critic Dwight Brown at DwightBrownInk.com.

Oakland Post

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Advice

COMMENTARY: If You Don’t Want Your ‘Black Card’ Revoked, Watch What You Bring to Holiday Dinners

From Thanksgiving to Christmas to New Year’s Day, whether it’s the dining room table or the bid whist (Spades? Uno, anyone?) table, your card may be in danger.

Published

6 hours ago

December 14, 2025

Oakland Post

The ‘aunties’ playing cards. iStock photo by Andreswd.

By Wanda Ravernell
Post Staff

From the fourth week of November to the first week in January, if you are of African descent, but particularly African American, certain violations of cultural etiquette will get your ‘Black card’ revoked.

From Thanksgiving to Christmas to New Year’s Day, whether it’s the dining room table or the bid whist (Spades? Uno, anyone?) table, your card may be in danger.

It could take until Super Bowl Sunday for reinstatement.

I don’t know much about the card table, but for years I was on probation by the ‘Aunties,’ the givers and takers of Black cards.

How I Got into Trouble

It was 1970-something and I was influenced by the health food movement that emerged from the hippie era. A vegetarian (which was then considered sacrilegious by most Black people I knew) prepared me a simple meal: grated cheese over steamed broccoli, lentils, and brown rice.

I introduced the broccoli dish at the Friday night supper with my aunt and grandfather. She pronounced the bright green broccoli undone, but she ate it. (I did not, of course, try brown rice on them.)

I knew that I would be allowed back in the kitchen when she attempted the dish, but the broccoli had been cooked to death. (Y’all remember when ALL vegetables, not just greens, were cooked to mush?)

My Black card, which had been revoked was then reattained because they ate what I prepared and imitated it.

Over the decades, various transgressions have become normalized. I remember when having a smoked turkey neck instead of a ham hock in collard greens was greeted with mumblings and murmurings at both the dining room and card tables. Then came vegan versions with just olive oil (What? No Crisco? No bacon, at least?) and garlic. And now my husband stir fries his collards in a wok.

But No Matter How Things Have Changed…

At holiday meals, there are assigned tasks. Uncle Jack chopped raw onions when needed. Uncle Buddy made the fruit salad for Easter. My mother brought the greens in winter, macaroni salad in summer. Aunt Deanie did the macaroni and cheese, and the great aunts, my deceased grandmother’s sisters, oversaw the preparation of the roast beef, turkey, and ham. My father, if he were present, did the carving.

These designations/assignments were binding agreements that could stand up in a court of law. Do not violate the law of assignments by bringing some other version of a tried-and-true dish, even if you call it a new ‘cheese and noodle item’ to ‘try out.’ The auntie lawgivers know what you are trying to do. It’s called a menu coup d’état, and they are not having it.

The time for experiments is in your own home: your spouse and kids are the Guinea pigs.

My mother’s variation of a classic that I detested from that Sunday to the present was adding crushed pineapple to mashed sweet potatoes. A relative stops by, tries it, and then it can be introduced as an add-on to the standard holiday menu.

My Aunt Vivian’s concoctions from Good Housekeeping or Ladies’ Home Journal magazine also made it to the Black people’s tables all over the country in the form of a green bean casserole.

What Not to Do and How Did It Cross Your Mind?

People are, of all things holy, preparing mac ‘n’ cheese with so much sugar it tastes like custard with noodles in it.

Also showing up in the wrong places: raisins. Raisins have been reported in the stuffing (makes no sense unless it’s in a ‘sweet meats’ dish), in a pan of corn bread, and – heresy in the Black kitchen – the MAC ‘n’ CHEESE.

These are not mere allegations: There is photographic evidence of these Black card violations, but I don’t want to defame witnesses who remained present at the scene of the crimes.

The cook – bless his/her heart – was probably well-meaning, if ignorant. Maybe they got the idea from a social media influencer, much like Aunt Viv got recipes from magazines.

Thankfully, a long-winded blessing of the food at the table can give the wary attendee time to locate the oddity’s place on the table and plan accordingly.

But who knows? Innovation always prevails, for, as the old folks say, ‘waste makes want.’ What if the leftovers were cut up, dipped in breadcrumbs and deep fried? The next day, that dish might make it to the TV tray by the card table.

An older cousin – on her way to being an Auntie – in her bonnet, leggings, T-shirt, and bunny slippers and too tired to object, might try it and like it….

And if she ‘rubs your head’ after eating it, the new dish might be a winner and (Whew!) everybody, thanks God, keeps their Black cards.

Until the next time.

Oakland Post

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Arts and Culture

Fayeth Gardens Holds 3rd Annual Kwanzaa Celebration at Hayward City Hall on Dec. 28

Kwanzaa celebrates seven principles – Nguzu Saba – that support an ideal of community, beginning from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1. Those principles, in Swahili, are: Umoja (Unity), Kujichagulia (Self-Determination), Ujima (Collective Work & Responsibility), Ujamaa (Collective Economics), Nia (Purpose), Kuumba (Creativity) and Imani (Faith).

Published

6 hours ago

December 14, 2025

Oakland Post

The Pride and Joy Band performed at the first annual Kwanzaa celebration sponsored by Fayeth Gardens. Courtesy photo.

Entertainment, vendors, and special honors for Sankofa Lifetime Achievement awardees

Special to The Post

Celebrating Ujima, the principle of ‘Collective Work and Responsibility,’ Fayeth Gardens’ 3^rd Annual Kwanzaa Celebration will be held on Dec. 28, from 12 noon to 5 p.m.

Kwanzaa celebrates seven principles – Nguzu Saba – that support an ideal of community, beginning from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1.

Those principles, in Swahili, are: Umoja (Unity), Kujichagulia (Self-Determination), Ujima (Collective Work & Responsibility), Ujamaa (Collective Economics), Nia (Purpose), Kuumba (Creativity) and Imani (Faith).

The free event at Hayward City Hall at 777 B St. will feature live entertainment, a guest speaker, awards for community activists whose work reflects the principle of Ujima, vendors and an honoring of the ancestors by Awon Ohun Omnira (Voices of Freedom).

On stage will be the Touch of Class Band, a New Orleans Second-Line Band, and the California Griot Storytellers. Bring the children to have fun in the Kids Korner.

Velda Goe, who has been celebrating Kwanzaa since it started in the 1960s, noticed there was no public celebration of the holiday in Hayward when she moved to the city in 2008.

“I started it a couple of years ago,” she said, “and hopefully it will continue just like the cultural events by other nationalities (in Hayward). The Afro-descendent people of Hayward deserve cultural recognition as well.”

Goe also believes it’s important that Kwanzaa gets its due because “there are so many misconceptions,” particularly by people of other nationalities, who are under the impression “that Kwanzaa is a cult, a religion, or replaces Christmas.”

The celebration, which is open to all, can have the effect of helping guests see that Kwanzaa’a principles and purpose are common to all

This year’s Sankofa Lifetime Awardees are:

Mrs. Freddye M. Davis: President of the South Hayward NAACP
•Baba Arnold X.C. Perkins: Co-founder of the Brotherhood of Elders
•Frederick Jordan,: Legendary founder of F.E. Jordan & Associates and the Design Engineer for the Charles P. Howard Container Terminal at the Port of Oakland + 1,000 Projects

Come dressed up in your best African wear to enter a raffle for a prize for best-dressed Afrocentric King and Queen.A free, healthy soul food lunch is available with an Eventbrite ticket, which can be found at for free lunch is available from for 11:30 to 12 p.m.

In its third year, the event is the brainchild of Velda Goe, founder of Fayeth Gardens, a community planting site to educate and provide a means for urban dwellers to grow healthy food for their families and develop life-sustaining eating habits.

Interested in being a vendor, volunteer, or sponsor? Reach out to FayethGardens@gmail.com

For tickets, go to: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fayeth-gardens-3rd-annual-kwanzaa-celebration-at-hayward-city-hall-tickets-1974966953322