Tiffany Haddish is glad she didn't have to kiss Kevin Hart in Night School: 'Ew, gross'
For most of Night School, Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish’s characters seem destined to end up together. It’s a Hollywood tale as old as time: The main male character has a fiancée who doesn’t truly love him for him, but then he meets a woman who makes him a better man, and after some spirited back-and-forth, they realize they are the ones for each other. Well, that is what Teddy (Hart) thought, going in for a kiss on Carrie (Haddish) during a slow dance at prom, only for her night school teacher to reveal that she’s gay. And it turns out, Haddish is very thankful for the twist.
“I love that we switched it up,” she tells EW. “Me, being in love with Kevin? Ew, gross. [Laughs.] He’s like my brother. If they would have gone, ‘Okay, now you guys have to kiss,’ I would have been like, ‘Ughhhh.’ That would have been really hard for me to do. Kevin’s not gross, I’m just saying that’s like my big brother. Literally, I’ve known him for so long and he’s mentored me and checked me on so much stuff just like a big brother would, even though he’s only like four or five months older than me.”
Haddish further added that her excitement over the reveal was more than just her sibling-like relationship with Hart. “I was really happy with that scene and I thought it would be great for the people and the LGBT crew,” she continues. “It’s not about sex or anything and really about caring and nurturing this person to be their best self.”
Meanwhile, Hart, who co-wrote the script, was just glad to throw a curveball at the audience. “We wanted to go the opposite way from what is typically the case when dealing with movies like this,” he says. “These movies always give you a familiar ending, one that people can hint at and get towards. We thought it was a fun way to throw the curveball and give the audience something else to laugh at and appreciate. In our screenings and testings, we got a great response.”
A lot of the great response is surely from the chemistry between Haddish and her “big brother,” so does that mean these two stars could be Hollywood’s next great comedic pairing?
“I would definitely work with Kevin again,” says Haddish, who started Night School right after her big breakout Girls Trip was released. “I would have to make more money, though. [Laughs.]”
Night School, which also stars Taran Killam and Rob Riggle, is now in theaters.
