Chris Rock Opens Up About Hosting the Oscars Again for Essence Mag

American actor, Chris Rock is on the cover of Essence
magazine for the very first time as he gets featured in
their annual Hollywood Marcy Issue.
The actor talks about the diversity in Hollywood, his
second go at hosting the Oscars, and roles for Black
women in Hollywood.
See excerpts below.

On the Oscars: I’m going to do my best. It could go
horribly wrong. Don’t ever think that it can’t. That’s
when it goes wrong—when you don’t think there’s any
chance of it going wrong. If you know it won’t, it
probably won’t.
On the challenges facing Black actresses in Hollywood:
“I’ve never done a movie, any movie, the silliest movie,
where someone, some studio person hasn’t gone, ‘Does
the girl have to be Black?’ It happens every time. Black
women get paid less than everybody in Hollywood.
Everybody’s talking about Jennifer Lawrence. Talk to
Gabrielle Union. If you want to hear stories, talk to Nia
Long. Talk to Kerry Washington. They would love to get
to Jennifer Lawrence’s place, or just be treated with the
same amount of respect.
On black women getting fewer roles in Hollywood: I
think everything I’ve ever done has had a significant role
for a Black or brown woman. I refuse not to. I’ve never
gone into battle without a Black woman, you know, a
movie battle. With Tichina Arnold in Everybody Hates
Chris, I had to fight for Tichina. I’m not even going to
tell you who the network wanted. She’s literally as good
as Tina Fey or Julia Louis-Dreyfus or any of these
chicks. They’re like, ‘Tichina who’?’